The world admires the United States for our education system. Students from China, India, Russia, and a host of other countries fill our colleges and universities. However, after degrees and work experience are secured, unless they are offered extraordinary salaries and benefits by technology-based companies, they often return to their respective countries, while the United States continues to report a lack of skilled workers.

In 2003, manufacturing was a striking addition to the national agenda, which included evaluating the state of the industry, education, and work force. At the time, this topic received attention from all levels of government, across all news media. That same year, Saul K. Fenster, Ph.D., president emeritus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), served as president of the SME Education Foundation. He concluded that while the prominence of these issues was certainly a validation of the foundation’s work, it was also a call to action. He accelerated the expansion of SME’s efforts, which required a great level of commitment from its leadership, volunteers, and donors.

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