Black Engineers Work With Ferguson Youth
Date Posted: March 30, 2015
Posted In: News,
From The St. Louis American: Prompted by the deadly shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr., six engineers met recently to brainstorm about how they can help Ferguson’s youth thrive.
The National Society of Black Engineers, St. Louis Chapter, had a lively conversation about the complexities of the shooting incident. They asked youth about the role that hiring parity in municipal government, lack of economic development, current educational structure and absence of political support for youth science programs may have played in the unrest.
NSBE’s Pre-College Initiative has run a youth program in Ferguson for eight years.
“The Pre-College Initiative program prepares underrepresented students to successfully matriculate through college and ultimately join the science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce,” said Ron Moore, PCI director.
Penny Harris-Smith – now a project manager at KAI Design & Build – said she was part of NSBE’s College program more years ago than she’d like to admit.
Today, the NSBE mentor helps PCI students get excited about engineering.