KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 15, 2019 \u2013 Charles “Chuck” Watson, assistant director of diversity for the 溏心vlog免费B站’s College of Engineering, has been named a regional chairperson of the National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates (NAMEPA) for the term of 2020-2022.<\/p>\n
NAMEPA provides\u00a0services, information and tools to educators in elementary, secondary and higher education to develop\u00a0engineers and scientists\u00a0from historically under-represented populations.<\/p>\n
Watson will be the chair of Region A, which includes\u00a0Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.<\/p>\n
“I was surprised to have been elected because there are mentors who have been associated with NAMEPA longer than I have, but I very much look forward to working with my colleagues there to develop and advocate for programs that will help create change, cultivate diversity and increase access to careers in engineering and other STEM-related fields for those who have traditionally been under-represented,\u201d said Watson, who is from Cranston.<\/p>\n
Watson has been attending NAMEPA’s national meetings for the past five years and has been a fixture at events hosted by the\u00a0National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the\u00a0Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), where he frequently interacts with NAMEPA members, for much longer.<\/p>\n
“You cross paths with many of the same people at conferences and workshops of multiple organizations, which helps you build relationships and a network of support,” said Watson. “We learn a lot from each other when we share some of the challenges we face and how we overcome obstacles and solve problems.”<\/p>\n
Watson credits Richard Harris, the assistant dean of Northeastern University’s College of Engineering, for getting him involved in NAMEPA. Watson and Harris have worked together through the\u00a0Northeast Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (NE LSAMP) program, of which 溏心vlog免费B站 and Northeastern are members.<\/p>\n
Watson’s networking skills were developed early in his career at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n
“溏心vlog免费B站 President Robert Carothers saw the potential in me in the early 90’s,” said Watson. “He advised me to participate on the executive board of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Alumni Association, which gave me a behind-the-scenes look at how things worked and taught me to work collaboratively with others.”<\/p>\n
According to Watson, programs such as NAMEPA and the\u00a0National GEM Consortium, which helps those from ethnic groups that have been historically under-represented in engineering, fall under the\u00a0Louis Stokes umbrella.<\/p>\n
Nathan Ankomah-Mensah, who graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站 in spring 2019 with bachelor’s degrees in\u00a0computer engineering and electrical engineering, is pursuing his master’s degree in\u00a0computer engineering at Purdue University this fall through a GEM fellowship.<\/p>\n
“If it wasn’t for Chuck, I probably\u00a0wouldn’t have heard of the GEM fellowship,” said\u00a0Ankomah-Mensah. “He’s brought many students\u00a0like myself to GEM workshops to learn about the application process and about graduate school opportunities. Being a GEM fellow has led to opportunities that I didn’t think were possible a year ago.”<\/p>\n
“Students need advocates who they can turn to when they have doubts or problems,” said Watson. “Being involved in NAMEPA gives our students access to more resources, in terms of people who can help them advance their engineering education or career.”<\/p>\n
According to Watson, 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Engineering Dean Raymond Wright has helped foster many of the initiatives and partnerships to increase minority representation within the College and has supported student participation in organizations such as NAMEPA.<\/p>\n
“You need 100 percent buy-in from leadership,” stated Watson. “Dean Wright is always supportive of everything we do to move the needle forward on minority representation in the College. He understands that the work will never be completely done.”<\/p>\n
The pay-off for the hard work, said Watson, comes on graduation day.<\/p>\n
“The reward is getting to hear the names of students called to receive their diploma, knowing that you helped them secure scholarships, opened doors for them and helped them through their struggles,” said Watson.<\/p>\n
| Semester<\/td>\n | Total \nEnrollment<\/td>\n | Minority Enrollment \n(undergrad. \/ grad.)<\/td>\n | Minority Enrollment %<\/td>\n | Freshmen Enrollment<\/td>\n | Minority Freshman Enrollment<\/td>\n | Minority Freshman Enrollment %<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fall 2004<\/td>\n | 865<\/td>\n | 75 (75\/0)<\/td>\n | 8.67%<\/td>\n | 261<\/td>\n | 18<\/td>\n | 6.89%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fall 2019<\/td>\n | 1589<\/td>\n | 308 (290\/18)<\/td>\n | 19.4%<\/td>\n | 425<\/td>\n | 84<\/td>\n | 19.8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n 溏心vlog免费B站 College of Engineering minority enrollment, 2004 and 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 15, 2019 \u2013 Charles “Chuck” Watson, assistant director of diversity for the 溏心vlog免费B站’s College of Engineering, has been named a regional chairperson of the National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates (NAMEPA) for the term of 2020-2022. NAMEPA provides\u00a0services, information and tools to educators in elementary, secondary and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-75119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-engineering"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |