The St. Louis Gateway chapter of National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is a group of professional engineers who are the driving force behind developing the next generation of engineers, entrepreneurs and leaders. One of our main thrusts is to interest students in careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), because we understand science, technology, engineering and math liberal arts degrees are the degrees of the 21st century.
Crime is a major factor in the economic decline of a community. A report from the Brookings Institute’s Hamilton Project found that black male dropouts born in 1975 have a 70 percent chance of ending up in prison. I believe that we can reduce the prison pipeline numbers by training young parents, religious and community leaders on the importance of early childhood education, specifically an education with a STEM emphasis. An education with a STEM emphasis might also reverse this troubling trend: While people of African descent represent 14 percent of the U.S. population, we only hold 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
NSBE’s focus is to cause a cultural shift by exposing more African-American students to STEM fields and entrepreneurship. At the national level, NSBE started a campaign called “2025.” Its goal is to increase the number of African-American engineering graduates from 4,000 to 10,000 by the year 2025.
We want to invite black professional engineers who are interested in giving back, helping us achieve parity and exponential growth in the STEM fields to become involved in recruitment and retention efforts in St. Louis. Sadly, 95 percent of NSBE’s STEM graduates receive jobs away from the area.
We were pleased to have an opportunity to collaborate with The St. Louis American to feature six NSBE engineers with ties to the St. Louis region in the July 23-29 Diversity insert. If you missed these articles, look in the online archives for “From Kinloch to nuclear submarine commander,” about U.S. Navy Captain Richard R. Bryant; “Encourage minority students to pursue STEM,” about Marcus A. Huggans; “Expose your children to STEM,” about Jeremi London; “Where engineering meets art – and cooking,” about Marcus Foston; “General Mills manager credits NSBE for success,” about Alexandria Merritt; and “Engineer advises students: Take care of business,” about Jessica Ray.
As you can see from these articles highlighting the achievements of engineers, NSBE has a family feel; we work together to help each other succeed. Membership is open to all STEM-focused individuals. Our members consists of people from all religious faiths and racial groups, and we are proud of our growing number of women; however, people of African descent make up the largest segment of our membership.
NSBE wants to show the community that STEM degrees are achievable with hard work and perseverance. An underlining message is the importance of finding mentors, networking, setting high standards and giving back to the community. Volunteers run the local chapter, and giving back is a key part of personal development. Members learn to give back to the community with time and money as they move through their life goals an expression of love to the young people in the program.
We are very proud of our young people and honored that our local chapter of junior engineers – St. Louis Metro Gateway NSBE Jr. – was named chapter of the year for stressing the importance of working hard in high school and college, so they will be able to give back to the community in light of the Michael Brown Jr. incident.
These students meet every third Saturday to participate in NSBE Pre-College Initiative activities at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, which is located at 3400 Pershall Rd. in Ferguson.
NSBE professional members mentor underrepresented students in order to prepare them to successfully matriculate through college and ultimately join the science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM workforce. There are currently 120 area 6-12th graders who receive pre-engineering training at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley every third Saturday. The PCI program is funded by two international companies headquartered in Germany, student dues and annual Scholars Receptions.
NSBE also trains parents about the importance of preparing youth for STEM careers through special seminars. Our message to parents, grandparents and supporters of the next generation of engineers and entrepreneurs is that first grade is a great place to begin exposing children to a STEM program, but it is never too late to start.
In 2015-16 and beyond, NSBE hopes to increase our monthly pre-engineering numbers from 120 to 150 students. We are also exploring the idea of starting chapters at area schools. We hope to facilitate and advocate for the implementation of internship and apprenticeship programs for high school students. NSBE will appeal to local leaders to develop and fund these programs.
We aim to launch the Summer Engineering Experience for Kids program, which is a free, three-week program developed and sponsored by NSBE. The SEEK program is designed to be a fun and engaging educational experience led by NSBE engineering students and technical professionals dedicated to pursuing professional excellence and giving back to the community. NSBE’s goal is to provide slots for 500 students at 10 locations in the St. Louis region.
We also advocate for building a youth STEM technology center at the Florissant Valley community college campus. Florissant Valley is a perfect location to provide area students with STEM classes that they cannot receive at their schools. Classes would include physics, advance math, computer programming, computer-aided design, engineering design, art and music.
For information about how you or your child can get involved in NSBE, visit nsbe-stl.org for local and nsbe.org for national information. You may also contact me directly at pci@nsbe-stl.org.
Ron Moore is director of the Pre-College Initiative for the St. Louis Gateway chapter of National Society of Black Engineers
