NSBE - Convention 2018 - 10

Northrop Grumman/NSBE/HBCU Partnership
Benefits Students in Year Two

en thousand Black Engineers
produced annually in the U.S.,
by 2025: When NSBE's
National Executive Board
set this as the main goal of the
Society's 10-year Strategic Plan,
"strengthening the pipeline" was a
big part of the discussion. NSBE's
leaders realized that the financial, academic and professional
development supports in place for
African-American pre-college and
college students would have to be
made much more robust to bring
the goal within reach. They also
knew NSBE could not make "10K"
a reality without more and stronger
partnerships with other stakeholders in
the cause of engineering diversity.
The Northrop Grumman
Foundation/NSBE Integrated
Pipeline Program (NGF/NSBE
IPP) was one of the first results of the
board's thinking. Announced during
NSBE's 2016 Annual Convention in
Boston, Mass., the three-year, $2-million program - funded by Northrop
Grumman Foundation - is designed to
provide 72 students at three Historically
Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
with annual, $8,000 scholarship grants
and year-round academic and professional development support. The support
includes such things as training for interviews for technical jobs and mentoring
from STEM professionals.
HBCUs are a prime source of black
STEM talent in the U.S., producing
about 40 percent of the nation's Black
Engineers each year. Three of them -
Florida A&M University (FAMU), Howard
University and North Carolina A&T State
University - are NSBE's institutional partners in the NGF/NSBE IPP.
The first cohort of 24 Northrop
Grumman Foundation/NSBE scholars
was selected in December 2016. Among
them was Yemi Ajiborode of Howard
University, who later highly recommended the program to his friend and schoolmate, Michelle Brown: a sophomore
10 * NSBE MAGAZINE * CONVENTION 2018

Candace Williams of Howard University (left)
and Morgan Harris of North Carolina A&T State
University (right) joined 22 other students this
year as Northrop Grumman/NSBE scholars.

computer science major from Miami
Gardens, Fla., and one of the 24 members of this year's second cohort.
"(Yemi) was telling me about the
benefits of it, how it helped him....how
they really open up doors for you, how
they were helping him to become a better
engineer with the webinars and the other
assistance," Brown says. "I really want to
be the best engineer I can be, so I applied
for it."
The benefits flowing to the NGF/NSBE
scholars are clear, but a short talk with
a few of them hints at the diverse value
they will one day add to the nation.
Candace Williams, from Norfolk, Va., is
another Howard University sophomore.
She spent two years in the NSBE Jr.
program in high school and joined the
Howard chapter in 2017. Asked what
led her to major in comp sci, she says, "I
think the answer everyone looks for is

that I fell in love with coding when
I was young. But that couldn't be
farther from the truth. I chose computer science because it was practical. Going into the hard sciences is
something many college students
that descend from involuntary
minorities use as a method to break
the cycle of generational poverty in
their families. I treat computer science like a tool, not just to promote
monetary wealth in my community
but to also add value to our experiences online."
She looks forward to having a
mentor in the NGF/NSBE IPP and
plans to pursue her interest in accessibility software engineering in graduate
school.
North Carolina A&T sophomore
Morgan Harris, a mechanical engineering major from Aurora, Ill., has been
active with NSBE for two years. She
says her ultimate career goal is to "start
my own business that designs, builds
and sells prosthetics around the world."
She expects the NGF/NSBE IPP to
enhance her academic and professional
career.
Russell Cooks Jr., a FAMU sophomore
from Fayetteville, Ga., says, "I chose
computer engineering because every area
of our world is becoming digital, if it is
not already. I want to be able to make
a difference in our world, and I believe
computer engineering will give me the
largest opportunity to do so."
Cooks has been a member of NSBE
since 2015.
For its part, the Society is "pushing
the limits of program" to maximize its
impact on students and the field of
engineering, says Ralanda Nelson, NSBE's
manager, Collegiate Programs. "We
are exploring opportunities to partner
more with the Pre-College Initiative
demographic and expose them to the
innovative programming that we're
doing in the collegiate space as well as in
the professional space with the mentor
component of the program." ■
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