After a summer visit to the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, N.Y., Shawn Mitchell couldn’t wait to plan a future career in technology.
“There were so many inspirational speakers there … they talked about not just the aspect of technology and science but about life and life’s struggles,” says Mitchell, 20, a sophomore at the New York City College of Technology, a branch of the City University of New York (CUNY) also known as City Tech. “It was just very inspiring, very eye-opening (and) I saw and experienced stuff that I never experienced before.”
Laboratory visits are one of many methods used by City Tech’s Black Male Initiative (BMI) program that engages Black male students in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The BMI program, which targets both potential and existing City Tech students, was recently named one of nine U.S. Model Replication Institutions by NASA and the National Science Foundation for its innovative approaches in attacking the problem of Black male student enrollment and retention.
City Tech’s strategies will be replicated at other schools across the country as part of an initiative being administered by the Institute of Higher Education Policy (IHEP). IHEP officials say this initiative is designed to expand access in the STEM fields for students at minority-serving institutions.
“Nationwide replication of this program is an effective and innovative approach to helping historically underrepresented student populations succeed in higher education,” said Jamie P. Merisotis, IHEP’s founding president. “We look forward to identifying and moving forward New York City College of Technology’s most successful methods to create a positive change.”
