MY NSBE EXPERIENCE
by Kodi Harris
So you’ve decided to become an engineer. You eagerly begin your first semester of your undergraduate years, take your first classes, and have your first real struggles as a student. Soon enough, you hit a proverbial “glass ceiling” and begin to question if this is really the right choice for you. Don’t worry though, because you find out about a community of students facing the same issues. Best part? They all look like you. This is the experience of hundreds; no, thousands of students who join NSBE. This is my NSBE experience.
I grew up in a part of Atlanta where many schools lost accreditation. Teachers didn’t care. Students couldn’t care. Our schools wouldn’t care. Nevertheless, I was one of the few with aspirations of being a doctor one day. I continued my educational years in a better area of the city, and soon enough it was off to college. I started my undergraduate education at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA, where I major in Biology and Computer Science. My first semester was my best - and worst. I performed decently in my classes, but it was in my second semester that I faced my most challenges, both academically and socially. I felt as if there was no one who could understand the struggles I had faced. Most, if not all, of my friends were apart of this organization they just couldn’t seem to keep quiet about. They’d keep telling me to join the National Society of Black Engineers. I mean, after all, I had gone to the first general body meeting, but I didn’t feel like I “fit”. So, eventually, I decided to give it another chance. I went to more general body meetings, and mainly stayed with my friends. I remember one of the most exciting moments I’d had was finding out about National Convention. I immediately registered.
It’s March 2019, and the AUC NSBE chapter is head to Detroit, MI. I’ve never been so excited for a road trip in my whole life. It’s about 16 hours of me talking to people I’ve never spoken to, and bonding like no other. When we arrived in Detroit, I saw it. It was perhaps one of the greatest images any black person could see. I saw hundreds and hundreds of educated black men and women all moving in one place to impact the world in a way the average human never attempts to. They were seeking internships, jobs, ways to secure the bag like I had never seen before. I felt a sense of community. I felt the community of NSBE. A fire in me had been ignited. I experienced my first opening session, and I still recall how we were given the opportunity to run for a regional position from the floor. For some reason my body immediately stood up. Nervousness, tension, fear: all sorts of emotions ran through me. I had stepped up to an unknown call, and ever since, I have only gone up from there. This was just one story of thousands, left to finish. This, was my NSBE experience.