National Society of Black Engineers Brings 30th Annual National Convention to Dallas

2/19/2004

From: Kevin M. Briscoe of the National Society of Black Engineers, 703-549-2207 ext. 209 e-mail: kbriscoe@nsbe.org

News Advisory:

The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the largest student-managed organization in the country dedicated to increasing the number of African American engineers, is holding its 30th Annual National Convention in Dallas, at the Dallas Convention Center, March 17 through March 21. Each year, the Society's convention is host to more than 10,000 pre-college and college engineering students and technical professionals engaged in engineering diversity who participate in a number of workshops, panel discussions, competitions and career development events. The theme for the 30th Annual NSBE National Convention is "Strengthening the Pipeline to Success."

The 30th Annual NSBE National Convention includes an opening session keynote address by Shirley Jackson, Ph.D., president of Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute and the first black women to lead a national research university; a Career Fair, featuring more than 250 corporations, government agencies and academic institutions; 70-plus personal and professional workshops; guest speakers from such Fortune 500 companies as Verizon, United Technologies Corp., IBM, Dell and Texas Instruments; a Graduate School Conference and Fair sponsored by Delphi; the Pre-College Initiative Conference; the Technical Professional Conference; the 6th Annual Golf Classic, and the 7th Annual Golden Torch Awards ceremony. The latter, a black-tie fundraising event, has raised more than $200,000 in scholarship money for deserving students of color in the engineering disciplines since 1998.

The five-day event is capped by a closing extravaganza, sponsored by IBM, that includes a keynote address from University of Central Florida associate professor and motivational speaker Pamela McCauley-Bell, Ph.D., and a musical performance by neo- soul duo Floetry.

"Our convention, the largest of its kind, is dedicated to two key outcomes: increasing the personal and professional development for our members and other attendees and ensuring that we maintain our partnership with our corporate, academic and government stakeholders to bring added diversity to the engineering workplace," said NSBE National Chairman Mario V. Church II. "Our success as an organization depends on these outcomes, but, more importantly, the success of the country, we think, is built on these outcomes as well."

For more information about convention activities, log on to http://www.nsbe.org/convention.

ABOUT NSBE

The National Society of Black Engineers is the premier organization serving African Americans in engineering and technology. With 15,000 members and more than 300 chapters, NSBE supports and promotes the aspirations of university and pre-college students and technical professionals. Our mission is to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community.