Highlands College Receives Grant from Gene Haas Foundation

The Gene Haas Foundation has awarded Highlands College of Montana with a $10,000 grant to support scholarships and student competition teams.

The grant will award scholarships to students who are currently enrolled or will be enrolling in a CNC technologist training or CNC machining-based engineering programs at Montana Tech’s Highlands College. Also, up to $2,500 of the grant can be used towards sponsorships of a competition highlighting the CNC/Manufacturing program such as SkillsUSA and SAE teams.

The award was presented to Dr. Dave Gurchiek, Dean, Tony Patrick, Department Chair Trades, Machining Program Director, Mike McCormack, Instructor of Highlands College of Montana Tech on Monday, October 28, 2019 at Highlands College by Graham Francis, HAAS Representative from the Gene Haas Foundation.

Dave Gurchiek, Dean of Highlands College added, “In 2018 we added more classes and labs to the machining program, making it a 2-year associate of applied science degree. Now, students come out of the program with 8 certifications which makes them highly employable. We have 19 machining students in the program with an additional nine mechanical engineering students from the north campus taking three machining labs to obtain a better understanding of practice and theory.”