Cynthia Chin
East High School
Twelve students and two staff members attended the Fall Regional Conference (Midwest) of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) from Oct. 25‒28. Our high school students visited the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and were given personalized tours of Case Western Reserve University student facilities and robotics labs by members of the local NSBE chapter. They also attended two general sessions and multiple sessions designed for high school students.
A team of four East students won fourth place out of six teams in the regional mathematics competition, and all students participated in a combined college and career fair, speaking with industry and college recruiters about challenges and opportunities in the professional engineering world. Students hope to attend a national NSBE event in Detroit in the spring.
We are grateful to the following contributors (among others) for their financial support of this trip: Rubin for Kids, American Family Insurance, NSBE Region IV, Culver’s East Towne, and donors to our GoFundMe website.
Here are comments from two attendees:
“I would like to thank all the people who gave us donations to go on this trip. Without you this experience would not have been possible. You gave us a chance to meet older people who have done things with their lives and it shows us that we can be more than what society portrays us as. It shows us we can make a difference in our homes, schools, community and in our education. This gave us time to bond with our peers and get to know each other and become like a little family.” East 10th-grader
“Thank you for changing my perspective on life. Before this Cleveland convention, I was a mere 2.0 student without goals and only minor accomplishments. I thank you for inviting us and mixing us with big name colleges like Michigan, Case, Ohio and Purdue. This showed me that a PWI [predominantly white institution] was not only possible, it was very doable. I learned about the different engineering majors that there were and that I, too, can succeed in this field.” East 11th-grader
