Makeda Stephenson

Hello NSBEFamily,

My name isMakeda Stephenson and I am asking for your support to become the next chair ofNSBE for the 2015-2016 term.

Like many of you, I come fromvery humble beginnings. I’m the oldestof four very active kids. My two parents,three brothers and I lived in 3 rooms in the upstairs of my grandfather’s housein inner city Boston. It was one ofthose situations where someone had turned 2 of the bedrooms in their upstairsinto “other” living quarters -- and labeled it an apartment. My parents bought beds for us and they slepton the floor.

You see, ittakes sacrifice to move things in this world. Another word for sacrifice is INVESTMENT. Team Opportunity is all about investment. We continue to make an investment in the mission, vision and agenda ofNSBE to create a bright future for our black engineers. Team Opportunity is all about investment in the communities that support us—home,faith-based, school-- and leveraging the wealth of that effort to forge a STEMpathway for our brothers and sisters. Team Opportunity is all about investing in our corporate relationshipsby providing the instructional undergirding for student NSBE engineers to succeed academically and excelprofessionally. Team Opportunity is all about YOU and meinvesting our time and talent to make a difference.

400 yearsago, people that look like you and me were brought to the West to build a start-up nation. We forged innovation and inventionthrough the iron chains of oppression and engineered the foundation for thegreatest economy in the world. TodayAfrican Americans make up approximately 12% of the nation’s population but less than 3% of the nation’s STEMprofessionals. An even smaller percentage of our people are in engineering. This is a national problem. Just think of the untapped talent; the latentskills that could be contributing to expanding the national economy throughdiscovery and innovation, pushing this nation far ahead into continuedgreatness?

I amcurrently a biomedical engineering student on of the least racially and genderdiverse campus’ in the nation. I’ve hungin there and have maintained a 3.7 gpa into my senior year.

As captainof Team Opportunity, I’ll be right in there with you to promote, support, enable,empower, and inspire my fellow NSBE engineers to hold the NSBE torch to thehighest standard of performance. As nationaloutreach chair, I successfully wrote legislation and defended your right toreach out to affect your communit