OUTREACH

At UIUC

Before UIUC

MIT Aero/Astro HBCU Visit Weekend

Assisted in the development and execution of the department’s first effort to recruitment efforts charged at recruiting black/African American students to the graduate program. Conducted one-on-one mentoring of student application material.

Stanford Exposure to Research and Graduate Education (SERGE)

Unsatisfied with the lack of representation in engineering disciplines at the graduate level, a group of graduate students dedicated their time and energy to combat such disparities. Together, we drafted the proposal for, organized, and executed this program that attracts high-achieving college juniors and seniors of underrepresented backgrounds to pursue graduate degrees in the School of Engineering. The high retention rate of participants who were accepted and enrolled in the following year has resulted in the permanent establishment of the program in the School of Engineering and the restructuring of recruitment efforts at the graduate level.

Graduate Recruiting

Throughout my graduate career, I have represented the School of Engineering at college visits, and professional engineering societies focused on serving minority communities. This includes the National Society of Black Engineers Annual Convention. I also provided insights about graduate life at Stanford and mentored students during the application process.

Engineers Without Borders

Over the course of my undergraduate life at Howard University, I have installed bio-sand filters in homes and institutions across rural communities in Kenya to purify contaminated water; reduced the community death rate from 52 to 0 in a year; distributed sanitary storage containers to capture filtered water and training tutorials for local engineers. I also initiated humanitarian projects in El Salvador and Haiti geared toward implementing infrastructure for communal trade and sewage. Other projects included designing & constructing water purification and storage systems that will reduce fluoride levels and deliver a safe source of water. 

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”

 - Martin Luther King Jr.