On April 5 to April 9, 24 New York Tech students virtually attended the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) 47th Annual Convention. The student registrations were sponsored by the NYIT College of Engineering and Computing Sciences and the Student Government Association. The convention featured virtual meetings, sessions, special events, networking opportunities, and a career fair. During the career fair, students interviewed for competitive internships and full-time jobs. Through this experience, Anwar Hussein, a master’s candidate in electrical and computer engineering, accepted an offer for a full-time role at IBM as a Processor and Chip Design Engineer at their Poughkeepsie, NY location.

“The NSBE career fair is filled with recruiters and managers with open internships and full-time jobs ready for students to apply and take advantage of. I personally visited so many company’s booths and I was able to get on the spot interviews,” said Hussein. “It’s with excitement and pleasure that I say that NSBE landed me my dream job at IBM, one of the most prestigious companies to work for.”

Sarah Johnson, electrical and computer engineering technology major and president of the NYIT-New York City chapter of NSBE, reflects on her experience at the NSBE 47th Annual Convention:

“I was very excited about New York Tech students being able to attend the 47th NSBE Convention from remotely all over the world. I thoroughly enjoyed navigating the various exhibit halls which brought all the in-person aspects to the virtual sphere. Much appreciation to the College of Engineering Computer Sciences, the Society of Women Engineers student chapter at New York Tech, and the Student Government Association for giving 24 New York Tech students the opportunity to attend the NSBE 2021 Convention.

On first login, convention participants are directed to create a movable avatar to maneuver within the platform. The keynote speaker kicking off the convention was none other than the national executive director of NSBE, Dr. Karl W. Reid. He spoke about the importance of understanding the current society and how they prepared for different outcomes that were to be expected, but wanted to bring only the best for the 2021 NSBE Convention. He discussed the implementation of ‘Game Change 2025’ a program to produce 10,000 graduated black engineers into the industry by 2025. ‘Together we go far, but there’s farther to go,’ said Reid. Game Change 2025 is in partnership with the 50K Coalition which brings together the American Indian Science & Engineering Society (AISES), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) to produce 50,000 diverse engineering graduates.

Throughout the week I attended various informative workshops highlighting phenomenal leaders from Google, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Apple, PNC, Merck & Co., and General Dynamics. I was able to hear from the executive board of WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) during ‘Empower Her: Navigating Your Career during COVID’, and learned about how to find mentors that challenge you and how to be confident in yourself and the work that you do. During another session, students from Region 1 of NSBE, which includes New York Tech, discussed how students and professionals have been impacted by the transition of online learning and work, how to manage time, and how to be efficient in the work that we display for our individual selves and representing NSBE.

I had connected with Bridgestone prior to the NSBE career fair and had two interviews with the Bridgestone Manufacturing team. I had an opportunity to speak with Nordstrom Tech and SADA Systems to schedule interviews at a later date about potential Fall 2021 and Summer 2022 internships and full-time employment. I also was able to connect with the other students at the convention and the CEO of SADA Systems through LinkedIn. It was overall a fantastic experience!”

Martin Dove, computer science major and vice president of the NYIT-New York City chapter of NSBE, also reflects on his experience at the NSBE 47th Annual Convention:

“The NSBE convention has completely outdone themselves this year! The virtual experience of customizing your own avatar within a virtual conference campus, interacting with other students, conference staff, and presenters in virtual classrooms and hangout spots was a very cool and immersive experience. I learned a lot from the workshops I attended from the very valuable tips and advice from transitioning from college to the industry, to learning how to build out my future career plan step by step. I met and connected with some great individuals including students in some of the workshops, as well as some of the hiring managers and actual recent graduates who are now software engineers at some of these major companies! We all had very similar personalities and interests, which gave me even more confirmation that I picked the right career field. Amazingly, I was able to interview with some great companies such as Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Visa, DOW Jones, Citi Technology, and more. The NSBE conference was an amazing experience and provides amazing opportunities for engineering students!”