NSBE launches program to support aspiring Black engineers
28th December 2020 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Following a successful virtual conference that gathered executives from several top companies to address the continued need to enhance STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and to empower the Black community in general, the National Society of Black Engineers remains committed to helping American society achieve racial and social justice.
NSBE Executive Director Dr. Karl W. Reid said the organization’s ALL IN Summit, which took place online last month, will be just one of the programs offered by the society in the approaching new year.
Reid said the NSBE aims to be a part of a greater societal shift toward racial empowerment and a leveling of the economic and educational playing field to assist aspiring Black students and employees, organizational aspirations that have been in place since the NSBE was founded 45 years ago by six African-American undergraduate students and their faculty advisor at Purdue University.
“Social justice has been central to NSBE’s work since our start in 1975,” Reid told The Louisiana Weekly. “Our founders saw proficiency in engineering as a way to empower Black people and their communities and to level the economic playing field in this very competitive society.”
Reid said that the country-wide surge toward social justice that began in 2020 following the killings of several African-American citizens by law enforcement continues to inform the NSBE’s mission. He said education for aspiring Black students will remain key to a brighter, more successful African-American community and a more just society overall.
“With the rise of national consciousness of racial injustice in the U.S. this year, we have launched an organization-wide initiative to move our membership ‘from protest to practice,’” he said, “that is, to develop a strategic plan that utilizes the problem-solving skills we have as engineers to make the nation more just and equitable, from our schools and workplaces to our criminal justice system and beyond.”
The NSBE, which was founded in 1975, includes more than 600 chapters at grade schools, high schools and colleges and universities across the country and boasts a membership of more than 22,000 students, educators, executives and entrepreneurs.
The organization provides support and assistance to collegiate and pre-collegiate students of color who are looking at a career as professional engineers or technological innovators. According to an NSBE press release, the organization’s mission is “to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community.”
The NSBE’s ALL IN visual summit included the participation of executives from several of the organization’s largest partners, including Cummins Inc.; The Links, Incorporated; Northrop Grumman Foundation; and Bechte. During the forum, the company executives stressed the importance and impact of the NSBE.
The executives, according to Reid, said the company representatives “told about the importance of NSBE to their organizations and themselves, and presented investment opportunities totaling $34.5 million” aimed at growing the NSBE’s programs for students and engineering professionals at all levels, to support the NSBE’s operations, and to help achieve the society’s “10K Goal” of leading the U.S. to produce 10,000 new Black engineers annually by 2025.
Reid said the virtual forum was an overwhelming success.
“As the name suggests, our All In Summit was about making a full commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in engineering, a field of critical importance to national prosperity and empowerment of Black and other underserved communities,” he said.
Boosted by the success of the ALL IN summit and with an eye toward the opportunities 2021 might offer, the NSBE continues to take other efforts to achieve its goals, including holding a series of virtual town hall forums on social justice and cultural responsibility; offering a virtual corporate town hall about social responsibility, brand alignment and the culture of corporations; and launching a new social justice website, socialjustice.nsbe.org.
Underpinning all of the NSBE’s initiatives is a belief that STEM education is a crucial driver of economic success, career opportunities and personal enrichment, especially for aspiring Black engineers and young Black students who often lag behind their peers in math and science proficiency tests and who are frequently dissuaded from taking the more challenging AP and honors classes that are often prerequisites for admission into collegiate engineering majors.
Reid said the society will continue to press forward with those objectives in mind.
“STEM has been the main engine of economic advancement and an essential element of social advancement globally since the Industrial Revolution,” he said, “and the importance of the STEM fields continues to grow at an increasing rate. STEM skills are needed in nearly every type of endeavor today, and STEM practitioners are addressing and solving the world’s biggest problems. STEM skills are increasingly required of those aspiring to be vital contributors to society and their communities.”
This article originally published in the December 28, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
