NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011 - (Page 12)

ThE ProgrAMs zoNE Inspiring Excellence by Example By Eric Addison Fundamentals of Engineering class hooked her on the subject. Keene credits NSBE with making her focus on a high GPA. “When I came into college, my first objective was just to get in and get settled and get to know everyone. I probably could have done a lot better my first year, (but I was making) that transition,” she admits. “When I first got hooked up with NSBE, there was a guy in our chapter who had an outstanding academic record, and he kind of hipped me to the game. He told me the purpose of getting good grades. It’s setting you up for your future. “When you approach a company about a job, one of the first things they see is your GPA,” she continues. “It’s the paper impression. It’s not all you need, but it’s definitely a big part. From that point on, I had a goal to keep it at a certain standard.” Keene says she and the National Executive Board have set three main goals for Academic Excellence this year: • “To expand and develop the NSBE Retention Program, not just pushing it out to more chapters but making sure those chapters have the resources they need to really make it effective. To go along with that, one of my personal goals is to make a connection with as many chapter leaders and chapter members as I can.” • “To really capture the academic status of our members. As you know, we ask for transcripts every year, and we don’t really get a representative sample.” Jasmine i. Keene, NsBe National academic excellence chair, at NsBe World Headquarters in June P aper credentials aren’t everything in getting a job or being successful in one, but making that good first impression on paper does help. That’s a lesson Jasmine Imani Keene learned early in college, and one that she’s found helpful in her current position with NSBE: national Academic Excellence chair. Keene graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park this past May with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a 3.802 grade point average. Her last-semester GPA was a perfect 4.0. After working as an intern with Exxon Mobil Corporation this summer, she began a graduate program at the University of Virginia in materials science engineering this fall. Even with prompting, Keene won’t say that she was always “a good student.” “I’ve always had kind of an aptitude for math and science,” she says. “But I never really got into it until someone pushed me. (In elementary school,) one of my teachers actually took me out of the class and pushed me to go into the accelerated track.” Keene attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a majority black, public, math, science and engineering high school in her hometown of Baltimore, Md. After some counseling from her volleyball coach, she chose the school’s engineering track over its science track. Once she was there, the hands-on projects of a “When I first got hooked up with NSBE, there was a guy in our chapter who had an outstanding academic record, and he kind of hipped me to the game. He told me the purpose of getting good grades.” • “Lastly, to increase the visibility of Academic Excellence…. NSBE is helping get more of our people in and through engineering, but our members don’t know all about the resources that they have.” Keene says her parents supported her but did not push her through school. Her mother, an engineer for Northrop Grumman Corporation, and her father, a pastor of a church in Baltimore, both went to college. “So in that regard, they were leading by example,” she says. “One of the things my dad always told me when I was growing up: ‘(Of those) to whom much is given, much is required.’ I know I’ve been given a lot of opportunities throughout my lifetime, to go to college, to grad school, to get scholarships. And I guess one of my goals is to make sure I can help as many people as possible get those same opportunities.” ■ CoNTINUED oN PAGE 14 www.nsbe.org 12 • nsbe magazine • fall 2011 http://www.nsbe.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011

NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011
Contents
The Next Level
Achievement Finds an Ally
Leadership, Your Way
The Programs Zone
Dr. Philicity Williams of the National Security Agency
Chapter News
Membership News
International News
NSBE Advisor Makes History
Pack Out Pittsburgh!
Empowered by Vision
Top Officers
St. Lucian Students Thrive at IIT
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
SEEKing Excitement for STEM
What’s New?
NSBE Calendar
The Professional’s Perspective
Shifting to Renewables for Electric Power
Alumni Officers
The Japan Effect
AE Members on the Move
Golden Torch Honoree
‘Brother Founder’ Donates $100K to NSBE
XL’ent!
Building Successful AE Chapters
Advertisers Index

NSBE Magazine - Fall 2011