President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law on Aug. 9, 2022. Two years and five days later, Mayor Ben Walsh of Syracuse, NY and Boise Mayor Lauren McLean signed a joint proclamation establishing a sister city relationship between the two cities.
The CHIPS and Science Act has provided both cities with funding to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. In Boise, the facility being constructed will lead to around 2,000 Micron jobs, according to a 2022 press release by Micron. In Syracuse, Micron will provide approximately 9,000 jobs after the opening of the facility in 2025.
The goal of the sister city relationship is for the cities to learn from each other as they construct new Micron semiconductor manufacturing plants and develop infrastructure to support their expanded semiconductor industries.
“We do think that there are opportunities for sister city benefits in the education sector,” Greg Loh, Chief Policy Officer for the City of Syracuse said. “One of the areas we want to explore is for students in our city school district. We’re very interested in pursuing connections that could help students in [K-12] in the city of Syracuse and in the city of Boise.”
To this end, Syracuse has begun the construction of a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) High School which will serve the entire region. According to Loh, it will serve around 30 school districts, and is a first for the state of New York. The school will offer students the opportunity to pursue majors and minors, much like a college education. Among these majors is Semiconductor Microchip Technology.
The STEAM school will be located in downtown Syracuse, where a school is being renovated to “include state-of-the-art classrooms, labs, and high-tech equipment to prepare students for careers in exciting, high-growth fields,” according to the City of Syracuse’s website. It is scheduled to open in September of 2025.
Onondaga Community College (OCC), which serves Onondaga County (of which Syracuse is the county seat), has partnered with Micron to develop programs that will prepare students to work in the semiconductor fabrication facility, which will be the biggest in the US. This program includes the construction of a clean room at OCC. Clean rooms are specially engineered rooms that filter out microscopic particles in the air to avoid contamination of small, sensitive materials like semiconductors.
As for K-12 and higher education in Boise, similar programs exist or are currently being improved upon. BSU’s Micron School of Materials and Engineering has a clean room as well. Those familiar with BSU’s campus know that many of the buildings contain Micron in their name — Micron is one of the university’s most established supporters.
Boise School District’s Dennis Technical Education Center, or DTEC, offers a variety of career and technical programs such as EMT, Zoology, HVAC or precision machining. DTEC also has a partnership with Micron. The Idaho Digital Learning Alliance, IDLA, recently rolled out one of three semiconductor focused courses for 8th to 10th graders.
Both cities expressed interest in creating a relationship between Syracuse University and BSU. The similarities between the schools are striking: students who’ve taken Euclid Avenue on their drive to class have taken the same street many SU students have, too — another Euclid Avenue, 2,356 miles away. Both schools use the color orange in their branding and both have NCAA Division I athletics. BSU has around 26,000 enrolled students, and SU has around 22,000.
According to Kathy Griesmyer, the City of Boise’s Government Affairs Director, “It’s something [Boise is] still working to kind of nail down and determine between [both cities].”
We have two major university institutions, a number of surrounding community college campuses within both Boise and Syracuse areas,”Griesmyer said. “How are there ways that we might be able to tie Boise State with Syracuse University for some shared collaboration partnerships? I think that’s something that the City of Boise is starting to kick off conversations with the City of Syracuse.”
Griesmyer said that while the conversations are just beginning, the mayors of both cities see very clearly that education opportunities really make a difference in the outcomes and opportunities for young people.
This early in the sister city relationship, the primary subject of discussion between the cities has been how they are adapting to the changes injected by the CHIPS and Science Act. Within both governments there is hope for educational programs to come about as well, but it will take time to see how they develop.
