The National Society of Black Engineers, established at UC Merced in 2007, is one of the campus’s oldest and most active student organizations. It provides support, guidance and advocacy for its members through their college journeys and beyond.
All that hard work has been recognized by the national NSBE organization, which recently awarded UC Merced its Region VI Chapter of the Year award during its convention in Chicago.
“It was a proud moment for our chapter,” said Meley Abay, a third-year computer science and engineering major, who is president of the UC Merced chapter. The NSBE has more than 200,000 members in more than 100 chapters.
The award recognizes how well the chapter performs throughout the year, Abay said. The UC Merced chapter’s activities included professional development workshops, campus collaboration and community service events.
“I think it’s a variety of factors that keeps this organization successful,” said School of Engineering Personnel Services Director Tomiko Hale, who has been the NSBE advisor since the club began. “This organization really supports students. Being a minority in engineering, being a woman in engineering, sometimes there are not people in class who look like you. NSBE gives you support outside of the classroom where you can talk about your struggles and encourage people to do better.”
Abay agreed.
“As a student, coming into college as an engineer and being a minority, it’s important to find a group of students who have that same mindset, the same goals you have.”
The organization helps students come together and strive to be better, Abay and Hale said. The conferences provide networking opportunities with other members, alumni and potential employers.
“It opens so many doors for students,” Hale said. “They just have to show up and do the work that’s in front of them. On top of that, they meet and find a community.”
NBSE has been so successful it has broadened its reach beyond the School of Engineering. Much of what the organization provides is applicable to other fields.
“We have students in all kinds of majors,” Hale said. “We do resume workshops and mock interviews, work with the Career Center and help prepare students for internships. At the end of the day, it’s about the mindset and the community it builds.”
And because of that success, the club has doubled its membership this year, to 72.
“I’m so proud of what the group has done,” Hale said. “Awards like these demonstrate to people and especially companies that we’re a force.”
She said she remembers when the local NSBE chapter began, she would go to national events and people would ask her about the university.
“They’d say, ‘UC what? Mer-ked?’” she said with a laugh. “Now we go and we don’t have to tell them who we are. They know.”
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