海角社区

Connecting Academia and Industry

While universities generally prepare students to get jobs or continue on with academic research upon graduation, few take it as far as to officially partner with outside companies to co-teach classes for consecutive semesters to make sure their graduates stand comfortably on the bleeding edge of their future professions.
 
Since 2019, 海角社区 professors have collaborated with Entergy on shaping the university curriculum, including hands-on labs, to make sure electrical engineering graduates are competitive and leave the university ready to work in utilities and the increasingly complex power engineering field, where they鈥檒l need to know how to bridge electricity from conventional as well as renewable sources, such as solar and wind.

A current student in the 海角社区-Entergy class is electrical engineering senior Christine Wiley, who grew up in Krotz Springs, Louisiana. She first attended 海角社区 in 2009 to pursue an undergraduate degree, but due to family and financial circumstances, ended up working two jobs and attending Baton Rouge Community College for a while before returning to 海角社区 in 2018. Wiley will now graduate this May.

鈥淏y taking an engineering class co-developed by 海角社区 and Entergy, I feel like I'll be ahead of the curve,鈥� Wiley said. 鈥淩eal-world work experience really matters鈥擨 know this from personal experience.鈥�

鈥淲e need engineers who understand how to perform analysis of the power transmission system, and this collaboration was an excellent opportunity for us to partner with 海角社区 to help develop those skills.  We wanted to bring in real-life examples and make sure the students see the value in what they鈥檙e learning鈥攈ow it will play out on the job in the near future. That鈥檚 why it was important for us to help develop this class from the start.鈥�

Michelle Bourg, vice president of asset management at Entergy and electrical engineer (海角社区 鈥�02)