SUNY Oswego to use federal grant to support study-abroad partnership related to semiconductors

OSWEGO, N.Y. — SUNY Oswego, in partnership with Monroe Community College, will use a $50,000 federal grant for study-abroad opportunities connected to Micron Technologies Inc.’s (NASDAQ: MU) plan to build a semiconductor campus in the town of Clay.

The money will support efforts to establish, expand, and/or broaden American student mobility overseas, SUNY Oswego said in its announcement. The grant is from the U.S. Department of State’s Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students (IDEAS) program.

The project’s title is “Getting Ready for Micron: How a Rural-Serving Public Regional University and an Urban Community College in Upstate New York Will Prepare Students for Opportunities in the Global Semiconductor Industry.”

The U.S. State Department’s IDEAS grant program seeks to challenge institutions of higher education to innovate and expand the definition of what they mean by education abroad, Joshua McKeown, SUNY Oswego’s associate provost for international education and programs, said in the school’s announcement.

“Even for a university like ours, where we have been successful at offering exceptional study-abroad opportunities for a long time, we are challenged to think differently, particularly in the Micron era we are now in,” McKeown said. “Not every major has been represented well in our international programs, and not every destination has either. Focusing on STEM [science, technology, engineering, mathematics] fields and developing targeted programs to East Asia, disciplines and relationships that SUNY Oswego has but not necessarily harnessed for this purpose, was challenging to conceive of and build support around. It’s really an affirmation of so much that we have built, and I am enormously gratified that this came through for us and we can put our international expertise to work in this way.”

McKeown said the project started during a visit to Taiwan to develop better relationships and partners.

“In between planning the trip and the event, the Micron announcement was happening,” McKeown said. “Taiwan is currently the world’s most advanced semiconductor producer. With those two developments coming together, I thought SUNY Oswego — with the partnerships we built in Taiwan and South Korea — could play a role.”

The grant will build opportunities for faculty members from SUNY Oswego and Monroe Community College to travel and create partnerships in Taiwan and Korea. McKeown said faculty selection will take place soon for delegations in 2025-26 to organically construct academic abroad opportunities “that make sense,” SUNY Oswego said.