For most of the 52 community college students and alumni who participated in the 2025 ATE Principal Investigators’ Conference’s student poster session last week, it was their first time in Washington, D.C. For all but a few, the conference was also the first time they had presented their work at a professional conference.
At a breakfast recognizing the students during the ATE conference, DeRionne Pollard, the new president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), praised their work and willingness to take on new experiences.
“I love the fact that many of you are doing something completely new and different… that you are experiencing a series of firsts, and that AACC and this ATE [Advanced Technological Education program] gets to be a part of that journey with you,” she told the group.
Pollard encouraged the students to continue with their STEM efforts, which can affect their careers, communities and society, in general.
“You are now a part of a group of people who are doing things, and you’re making new explorations and discoveries, but then also you’re very lucky you get to impact society at a much larger level, for these are milestones, I think, that mark the beginning of something extraordinary,” she said.
Kudos to faculty, mentors, too
AACC has convened the ATE Principal Investigators Conference for 32 years with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Pollard thanked the National Science Board and NSF for their support.
“Their leadership makes this possible and ensures that students like you have access to transformative experiences,” she said.
Pollard also thanked ATE principal investigators and faculty mentors of the students “for shaping lives, for seeing people, for cultivating curiosity, for encouraging people to make mistakes and learn how to lean into them and figure out how to go and solve the next problem.”
Telling their stories on the Hill
The participating students, who ranged in age from teens to middle-aged, took photos with Pollard and received a certificate recognizing their participation in the conference. Among them was 15-year-old Kane Wilding, who took the dual-enrollment aquaponics course that Santa Fe Community College offers at the New Mexico School for the Deaf and several other high schools. He earned an “A” in the course last year when he took it as a freshman.
After he completes high school a year early in 2027, Wilding plans to enroll in Santa Fe’s controlled environment agriculture program, which was developed with an ATE grant.
“It’s 100% a career down the line,” Wilding said, though he was impressed by the many technical careers on display at the conference’s ATE Connects sessions.
In addition to presenting their ATE-related work during the student poster session and attending plenary sessions, the students interacted with industry representatives during a special networking session.
Six students from three California community colleges and their faculty mentors used their free time in Washington, D.C., to visit Capitol Hill to tell congressional staffers about their ATE experiences. A handful of students who participated in the biotechnology project at Los Angeles Pierce College spoke with a member of Rep. Brad Sherman’s staff.
“We wanted to show him what we’re doing with the funding, where it’s going. So we talked about what we presented at the poster presentation,” explained student Mia Ben-Ami.
Student Masturah Wardak added: “We wanted to express, firstly, gratitude for the grants in their funding. Without that, none of us would be able to carry forward to their projects. But secondly, we also wanted to make it known how large of a market revenue the biotech industry is in California.”
MiraCosta College student Adrian Pineda Nicolas said he also expressed appreciation for federal funding as he told Rep. Mike Levin’s aide how the summer internship he obtained through his college’s ATE project led to an apprenticeship and now a part-time job with the company.
Nicolas said he told the aide that “the grant has been a great opportunity for me as a student, that they should keep it [the ATE program] funded.”
