A Case Study of Students in Career and Technical Student Organizations

By Nicole Yates

What impact do NSBE and other like organizations have on their members? A new study shows that high school students participating in career and technical student organizations (CTSOs) and activities have clearer career paths. In partnership with Skills USA and the Educational Research Center of America, the Manufacturing Institute completed a study, “Attracting the Next Generation Workforce,” which focused on the vocational interests of students in career and technical education (CTE) courses. The key findings, although specific to students taking CTE courses, can also shed light on participants in NSBE activities.

The first question the study covers pertains to factors that influence students’ career choices. The overwhelming majority of CTSO participants cite their own experiences as the most important factor, above parental advice, classes, social media and school counselor input. This finding underscores the importance of providing students with as much exposure to engineering as possible, both in and out of school. Although NSBE is not classified as a CTSO, it does similarly provide students with extracurricular technical experiences that can influence their future career choices. NSBE’s goal of graduating 10,000 Black Engineers annually by 2025 depends on exposure of pre-college students to engineering and will only be successful if we as an organization can expand our reach.

Other findings support the importance of participation in vocation-focused extracurricular activities: researchers found that nearly two-thirds of students participating in CTSOs say their career paths are clearer as a result, compared with a little more than one-third of non-CTSO students. Within NSBE, students enter a pipeline that directs them toward engineering degrees and careers at each stage. Thus, we can expect that our high school members also envision their career plans with more clarity than their non-NSBE member counterparts do. It is important to note that students in CTE courses can matriculate directly into the workforce after high school. The vast majority of engineers need a college education at minimum, but the same logic applies to college degrees: if the experiences a student had in high school solidify her choice to become an engineer, she will begin college with that end in mind.

Another significant measure in this study asked students about their experiences with prospective future employers: a potentially critical factor in career choices. Traditional experiences with future employers include internships, career fairs and mentorship initiatives. However, less than 10 percent of participants reported having done internships, which may be surprising, since internships are commonly touted as excellent career development experiences with mutual benefits to employers and future employees. The need for more involvement from companies becomes clear here. NSBE students may engage with corporate representatives at career fairs twice per year, but does that constitute their only point of contact? With more participation in chapter activities, companies can accomplish the dual goals of promoting their brands and recruiting more of the best and brightest.

At the conclusion of the study, the authors make recommendations that encourage alignment of career-focused programs and services. Based on those, I offer four recommendations to NSBE in pursuit of the 2025 goal:

WHAT IMPACT DO NSBE AND OTHER LIKE ORGANIZATIONS HAVE ON THEIR MEMBERS? A NEW STUDY SHOWS THAT HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS PARTICIPATING IN CAREER AND TECHNICAL STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS (CTSOS) AND ACTIVITIES HAVE CLEARER CAREER PATHS.

1. Expand the reach of NSBE by creating and supporting new chapters, strengthening existing chapters and enriching programming for chapters.
2. Explore new constituencies by raising awareness of NSBE in diverse communities.
3. Partner with local and national businesses to solicit guest speakers for chapter events.
4. Provide robust resources for engineers looking to obtain licenses in their field.

By aligning NSBE’s activities on the local, regional and national levels, the organization can continue to expose more pre-college students to engineering and fuel the workforce pipeline. Success in NSBE’s mission depends on each of us, from Professionals; corporate, government and nonprofit partners; and college students who actively participate in NSBE Jr. chapter activities to the parents who advocate for chapters in their children’s schools. The next generation of engineers is being developed, and their experiences matter.

Want to Graduate? Join NSBE

NSBE works. As members and leaders, we know this anecdotally, but one study quantified NSBE’s impact on graduation rates. In their recent submission to the American Society for Engineering Education, Monique Ross of Purdue University and Susan McGrade, Ph.D. of the Indiana Institute of Technology found that 82 percent of black students who were NSBE members at a Midwestern university graduated within six years, compared with only 7.7 percent of non-NSBE, African-American engineering students. Eighty-two percent. That means the NSBE members graduated at a rate more than 10 times higher than that of non-NSBE students.

Why does NSBE work? In this paper, the authors assert that NSBE provides a holistic social space for members to engage in quality relationships, participate in activities and cultivate a sense of belonging. NSBE promotes a culture of solidarity, so increasing retention in engineering as a direct result of mutual support fits the society’s narrative perfectly. Transcripts of interviews with participants in the study, both current students and recent alumni, tell a compelling story, when coupled with statistics obtained from the university database. The three major recurring themes about the value of NSBE that surface in these interviews are family, confidence and pride.

The university at the center of this study is described as a “small, Midwestern, predominantly white university” with no minority engineering program coordinator, no black faculty in the College of Engineering and no other notable black student organizations on campus. This is where NSBE excels: in spaces where the black community craves organization. Think about the story of NSBE’s founders, affectionately known as “the Chicago Six.” They started by simply coming together with the common goal of graduating, and although they were a small group, they supported each other when their larger campus community did not.

One of the most exciting findings of this research is that NSBE membership facilitated feelings of belonging to both the engineering community and the broader campus community among the student participants in the study. Students who felt connected to NSBE also felt connected to engineering and the campus as a whole, despite the small African-American population and utter lack of black faculty in their discipline. In the comments included in the paper, participants reveal that NSBE provided them with a sense of community they may otherwise not have had or that they did not have during other stages of their education. Many of the NSBE members share stories of being “the only black kid” in class and tell how sharing that experience with others diminished their feelings of isolation.

When students join NSBE, they become members of a global network of engineers, most of whom have experienced the unique difficulties that come with being an African American in their field. If nothing else, this research should encourage our outreach to non-NSBE members, especially those who are struggling. It is not enough for current members to succeed: as a Society, we must continually invite others into our community to make progress toward the goal of graduating 10,000 Black Engineers every year at the bachelor’s degree level. With 2025 swiftly approaching, achieving this dramatic increase in engineering graduates may seem like a daunting task, however, the first step can be as simple as an invitation.

Source: Ross, M. and McGrade, S. (2016). An exploration into the impacts of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) on student persistence. Submitted to the American Society for Engineering Education’s 123rd Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, La.

Why Engineering? College Majors and Earnings for African Americans

Why are you an engineer? In making the decision to major in engineering, I’m sure many of you at least considered earning potential, even if that wasn’t your primary motivation. However, a recent report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows that African Americans tend to be concentrated in the lowest-paying majors. Given the vocational consequences of a college major, this pattern presents a significant economic issue for black families.

The report notes that African Americans are significantly overrepresented in “intellectual and caring professions,” meaning their salaries do not reflect their years of higher education. With a bachelor’s degree in fields such as social work and human services or community organization — both fields with about 20 percent African-American graduates — median earnings are around $40,000. With a bachelor’s degree in engineering, an individual makes an annual salary upwards of $70,000, on average. However, only 5 percent of engineers are African American. The salary discrepancy becomes alarming when one considers that it means a difference of well over $1 million in lifetime earnings.

Why might African Americans tend to choose majors with the lowest earning potential? Although the paper does not speculate on causes, I have a few theories. The first is math, or, more accurately, aversion to math. Countless studies have shown that math classes deter African Americans from STEM majors (Elliott et al., 1996; May & Chubin, 2003; Russell & Atwater, 2005): it may be that some black students view less math-intensive majors as less intimidating and, therefore, can easily imagine themselves succeeding in those fields. This is why math readiness is so crucial before entering college. African Americans and their white counterparts enter college with drastic inequalities because of differences in access to higher-level math instruction.

A second theory I have that may explain why African Americans tend to major in low-paying fields concerns the dearth of role models. As the report notes, African Americans are overrepresented in fields like health and medical administration services, human services and community organization, and social work. Thus, young black children see more social workers, office administrators and counselors who look like them. Although these types of jobs are essential, engineering is one of the fastest-growing vocations with the potential for high earnings. Fewer black graduates in high-paying fields means fewer role models for the younger generation.

My final theory related to the pattern of selecting low-paying majors involves the perception of higher-paying majors as more self-serving and less beneficial to the community. Any NSBE member can proudly state that “positively impact(ing) the community” is integral to our identity. However, do other students know that as an engineer, you constantly serve the greater good? Engineers help save the environment, advance medical technology, create safer vehicles and repair crumbling infrastructure. Education and exposure are key. As African Americans, we feel a strong sense of community and want to be part of something greater than ourselves. As engineers, we can lift up our communities while simultaneously securing our own futures.

Primary source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, “African Americans: College Majors and Earnings.”

Other references:

Elliott, R., Strenta, A. C., Adair, R., Matier, M., & Scott, J. (1996). The role of ethnicity in choosing and leaving science in highly selective institutions.Research in Higher Education, 37(6), 681–709.
May, G. S., & Chubin, D. E. (2003). A retrospective on undergraduate engineering success for underrepresented. Journal of Engineering Education,92(1), 27–39. doi:10.1002/j.2168-9830.2003.tb00735.x.
Russell, M. L., & Atwater, M. M. (2005). Traveling the road to success: A discourse on persistence throughout the science pipeline with African American students at a predominantly White institution. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42(6), 691–715.

Is the Black Engineering Crisis a Woman Problem?

Written by:

Karl W. Reid, Ed.D Executive Director National Society of Black Engineers

Erika Jefferson Founder Black Women in Science and Engineering

Valerie Thomas Director Women in Science and Engineering Special Interest Group National Society of Black Engineers

Back in 2007, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and now the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), coined the phrase “the quiet crisis” to describe the growing gap between the nation’s demand for engineers and scientists and the inadequate pool of skilled talent to meet the demand. She argued that our nation’s failure to provide students from all backgrounds with an adequate education in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) explains why we’re not keeping up with the growing demand for technical talent. And given that Dr. Jackson’s concerns were raised nine years ago — at the dawn of both the mobile and social media revolutions, to name a few — the quiet crisis is no longer quiet!

NSBE 2025 and the Engineering Crisis Among Blacks

It’s now commonly known that the percentage of engineering degrees awarded to African Americans in the U.S. is on the decline, from 5.4 percent of all engineering degrees awarded in 2003 to 3.5 percent in 2014, according to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). This decade-long retrenchment is why the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has announced its strategic plan goal to nearly triple the number of black engineers this country produces annually, from 3,500 in 2012 to 10,000 by 2025.

Invariably, many NSBE members and other stakeholders ask the next obvious question: How do we get to 10,000? In addition to our published plans to expand and scale-up our programs and partnerships in all segments of the educational pipeline, one recent study suggests another clear path to 10K.

A recent book edited by John Slaughter, Yu Tao and Willie Pearson Jr., “Changing the Face of Engineering: The African American Experience,” suggests that the engineering crisis among blacks in America is a black woman crisis. In other words,the percentage of African Americans is declining in engineering largely because fewer African-American women are earning degrees in the field.

Another Quiet Crisis Is Simmering

In one chapter, Shirley Malcom and Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux paint a sobering picture. African-American women have a two-to-one advantage over African-American men in overall undergraduate enrollment and degrees awarded (problematic statistics in their own right), however, black men enrolled in engineering programs outnumber women by three to one. “Since 1977,” they write, “the female advantage that African American women experience in college enrollment and earned bachelor’s degrees does not translate to large numbers in the field of engineering.”

To put this in perspective, Monique Ross of Purdue University, in a recent study, summarizes it this way: although black women comprise 6.4 percent of the general population, they make up only 1.2 percent of undergraduate engineering enrollment and 0.77 percent of all engineering degrees awarded! It’s hard to become more underrepresented than this.

The researchers make it clear for NSBE that the path to 10,000 must proactively include black women. According to Malcom and Malcom-Piqueux,

If African American women earned bachelor’s degrees in engineering at the same rate as their male counterparts, this would yield more than 3,500 additional African American engineering bachelor’s degree holders annually.

Gender parity will double the number of black engineers this country produces and get us two-thirds of the way to our 2025 goal.

What Do We Do?

We need to be intentional about increasing black girls’ and black women’s interest in, awareness of and self-efficacy with regard to engineering. Here are a few ways we can collectively make this happen.

Change the conversation about engineering. The National Academy of Engineering’s efforts to “change the conversation” about engineering shift the focus from hard, technical descriptions located in disciplinary silos such as “electrical engineering” to a more contemporary reality that engineers solve cross-disciplinary problems that benefit people’s lives, a message that has resonated with young people, and especially young women.

Increase interest. Fewer black women are expressing interest in engineering at the onset. According to the National Science Foundation, only 3.2 percent of African-American freshmen women express interest in majoring in engineering, compared with 14.6 percent of black males. Engineering must be made more accessible by aligning the discipline with the interests of girls and young women. For instance, demonstrating how engineering is being used to improve the quality of lives for countless communities and people may make it more appealing.

Create more mastery experiences for girls. Developing self-efficacy (confidence) early in math and science for girls (and boys, too) is key to turning the trends around. Providing girls with exposure to engineering problems and opportunities to be successful in solving them is an important path to 10,000. NSBE’s all-girls and co-ed SEEK (Summer Engineering Experience for Kids) programs provide elementary school students with an opportunity to learn and apply engineering principles to build and present toys, all while boosting their math skills, affirming their identity and building self-confidence.

Showcase role models. There are innumerable examples of black women who have achieved academic and professional success as engineers. For instance, women make up 40 percent of the pre-collegiate, collegiate and professional membership of NSBE, a number that is double the national average of women in the engineering workforce. By having access to formal mentorships and being exposed to the personal and professional accomplishments of female engineers, more young girls could see that a career in engineering is possible. NSBE’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Special Interest Group and the Houston-based Black Women in Science and Engineering (BWISE) organizations provide great opportunities for women to network virtually and in person, while offering a great source of brilliant role models for those who are inspired to follow in their footsteps.

The path to 10,000 must engage more black women to pursue engineering. This is a call to action. By changing the conversation about engineering, creating more awareness and access, and leveraging existing networks, we can equip more black women to solve the increasingly complex problems of the 21st century, problems that engineers’ technical training and innovative mindsets are uniquely positioned to solve.

STEM and Social Justice: Applying an Engineering Lens to Social Change Part 2

Written by:

Karl W. Reid, Ed.D Executive Director National Society of Black Engineers

Emily Williams Associate Director Social Justice Initiative, University of Illinois at Chicago

The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is rooted in social justice. In Part 1 of this blog, we made the case that engineers’ unique, disciplined approach to problem solving can be used not only in areas such as heat transfer and structural dynamics but also more broadly. Applying engineering to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., and countless other global and domestic challenges is crucial if we want to improve and save lives.

But for most engineering students or professionals, it’s not often clear how to apply their discipline to redress social problems that are confronting our communities and the developing world. Here are a few suggestions:

Graduate with excellence. Every collegiate and pre-collegiate NSBE member has the same primary goal: to graduate with excellence. Earning a degree with the highest grades possible equips you to conquer social problems and increases your options to apply your skills, interests and passion anywhere.

Be multidisciplinary. The cofounders of #BlackLivesMatter did not simply found a movement on a whim. The idea for the hashtag and the conviction around the need for a movement were the result of studying and learning about black history, black feminism, black politics and queer theory. Broad study and intellectual curiosity have been encouraged and practiced by many of the young activists in the movement. In the same way, engineers can complement their technical and scientific knowledge with knowledge of the humanities, arts and social sciences.

Don’t accept the status quo. Our current world privileges some and subjugates others. This can change. When you invent new technology or perfect an existing model, ask who benefits and who loses from the end result. Will disadvantaged and already marginalized communities be able to access the product? Will the creation of said product or technology irreparably damage our planet? Adopting a sense of social responsibility means thinking about the impact we have on the world.

Find something you’re passionate about. Mike Murdock, in his book “The Assignment: Powerful Secrets for Discovering Your Destiny,” asserts, “What grieves you is a clue to something you’re assigned to heal.” Finding a cause or movement that emotionally fires you up may be a window to your calling, even if you respond by making it an extracurricular activity…for now.

Research what others have done or are doing. Chances are that there are others who share your passion and interest for a certain cause. However, as an engineer, your perspective may bring fresh solutions to the problem. It’s always better to add momentum and diversity of thought to an existing movement than to start a movement of your own.

Connect with communities. The people who are closest to the problems are most aware of what the solutions are and should be. When solving social problems, it’s important to work with individuals who are most affected. What do they want? How do they talk about the issues affecting them?

Seek out advisors. There is safety in numbers, particularly when it comes to the numbers of advisors who can help you avoid “landmines.” There are countless people in our lives who’ve succeeded and failed, and who are willing to offer lessons learned about their experiences. Experience isn’t always the best teacher. Teachers and advisors are!

Build sustainable networks. In her TED talk, Zeynep Tufekci, assistant professor in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, draws the distinction between current-day protests and the civil rights movement. The latter took years of planning and organizing, with attention to building communications networks and lasting relationships. Sustainable movements require a commitment to slow and steady organizing and collaborative networks, and not just a rapid assembly of people who are following a hashtag.

Focus relentlessly on data. Sustainable movements answer the “So what?” question with data. What effect will you have, and how can it be measured? Giving attention to metrics and piloting solutions while capturing and sharing data are key to building financial, human and institutional support.

Mentor your successor(s). Many movements rise on the charisma of a singular leader. But these same movements fail when that leader leaves or is removed, for whatever reason. Lasting social change initiatives invest in training and mentoring future leaders.

Social justice matters, for the sustainability of life on this planet and for the healthy development of human civilization. By taking a few steps and asking particular questions, social justice can be viewed through the lens of any career field.

Engineers can create the world we want to live in. In fact, it is up to them, and countless others who are trained to think critically and solve problems, to name injustice, to strategize and to develop informed, thoughtful alternatives. See yourself as an influencer who can catalyze change. Our world depends on it.

STEM and Social Justice: Applying an Engineering Lens to Social Change

Written by:

Karl W. Reid, Ed.D Executive Director National Society of Black Engineers

Emily Williams Associate Director Social Justice Initiative, University of Illinois at Chicago

Calls for justice for Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and Eric Garner gave rise to Black Lives Matter, a national movement that in one succinct phrase accentuates the value of all African Americans, and particularly those who are most marginalized in communities of color. On college campuses in Missouri, New Haven and Cambridge, diverse student protesters are raising legitimate questions about the racial climate of their local citadels of learning and progressive thought. And in largely African-American Flint, Mich., the neglect by state and federal officials of an environmental disaster may have irreparable repercussions for a generation of young people.

Tragically, these stories aren’t new. One can swap out the contemporary flash-points and replace them with names of historical significance such as Montgomery, Jackson or Watts. In truth, the African-American experience is born out of struggle. Author Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor calls Black Lives Matter a rebirth of the black liberation movement of the ’60s, which itself encapsulated 400 years of striving for equality and justice in America.

Social change is in the air, and it’s being waged with a disciplined approach to effecting justice, social justice.
Defining Social Justice
Social justice is the pursuit of a world in which all people have the opportunity to live decently and free of harm. It is born of the collective understanding that injustice and inequality are endemic to the systems and structures that make up our society. Our world is divided by race, socioeconomic status and other identity markers. Many who advocate for social justice realize that justice will not come for many communities through the criminal justice system or traditional institutions.

Envisioning social justice, we ask ourselves what the world would look like if everyone had access to the resources they needed, if black lives mattered, if violence were not used as a tactic and if the environment were not damaged for profit. Activists, community leaders and everyday people are imagining this world as they fight to end these injustices. It will require creativity, strategy and collective action to create this world. In short, it will require the minds of engineers.

NSBE Is Rooted in Social Justice
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is no stranger to social change. The Society was founded in 1975 by six Purdue engineering students who invited other black students from across the country to transform the face of engineering in higher education. In the ensuing 41 years, NSBE — now one of the largest student-led organizations based in the United States — has not only helped graduate tens of thousands of engineers, its 31,000 student and professional members around the globe are at the leading edge of a new cultural movement to transform education and increase participation of blacks in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). NSBE’s vision is to make engineering a mainstream word in homes and communities of color, and its primary strategic goal is to nearly triple the annual number of African-American engineering bachelor’s degree recipients in the U.S. to 10,000 by 2025. This vision and goal will not only have economic ramifications, they are bold statements of social change.

Engineers in Action
By their nature and training, engineers are problem solvers. Their disciplined, creative approach to finding solutions is useful in areas such as heat transfer and structural dynamics but also more broadly.

When news that the community of Flint, Michigan, was being poisoned by lead, bacteria and other harmful substances in its drinking water, the NSBE National Executive Board, in partnership with NSBE Professionals and collegiate chapters in Michigan, launched a national campaign to provide bottled water, water filters and water test kits to the people. More strategically, members of NSBE’s Environmental Engineering Special Interest Group, in collaboration with the American Water Works Association, are lending their technical expertise by educating Flint citizens about water filtration safety and helping to engineer a sustainable solution to the water crisis.

Addressing acute needs such as these while working to find long-term solutions is how we can apply an engineering lens to a social justice problem. And NSBE’s activism in Flint also exemplifies what it means to “positively impact the community,” which is a large part of NSBE’s mission.

In the next installment of this blog, we suggest some ways for engineers to redress social injustice.

NSBE Aerospace Systems Conference

An Inclusive Technical Base…Launching Aerospace Solutions

Welcome to the 4th biennial Aerospace Systems Conference of the National Society of Black Engineers!  Held in even-numbered years, the conference will be August 24-27, 2016, at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel, adjacent to Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia.

Act now to submit a technical paper or a nomination for a conference award!

Using Water Filters Effectively

By Naomie Baptiste, Director, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Environmental Engineering Special Interest Group

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides tap water standards under the Safe Water Drinking Act, which provides guidance on public water systems, protection of underground sources of water, emergency powers and general provisions. The EPA defines more than 80 regulated contaminants in drinking water, including arsenic, E. coli, chlorine and lead.

For areas with contaminated water supplies, such as Flint, Mich., water filters may be a solution. NSF International, previously known as the National Sanitation Foundation, is a safety-based risk management provider. Consumers can search for certified drinking water treatment units and water filters on the organization’s website.

JOIN NSBE’S ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP TO CONTINUE THE DIALOGUE ABOUT FLINT’S WATER CRISIS

For consumer transparency, the site provides a database of service cycle, flow rate and reduction claims for water filters and filtration systems.

A water filter that eliminates every contaminant known to man does not exist. It’s best, first, to know which contaminants your household needs to target. Community water systems are required to provide an annual drinking water quality report to the consumers they service, by July 1 each year. The report, named a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), tells consumers where their water comes from and what’s in it. If you haven’t received your CCR, you can find the information here. The report tells you what’s in the water in your area. However, to know what’s coming directly through your pipes, you must conduct a test on the water coming from your tap. The EPA’s Safe Water Hotline at (800) 426-4791 can help you find a state-certified laboratory to test your tap water.

Residents of Flint, Mich., should refer to Section 1417 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which establishes the definition for “lead-free” as a weighted average of 0.25 percent lead calculated across the wetted surfaces of a pipe, pipe fitting, plumbing fitting, and fixture and 0.2 percent lead for solder and flux. The Act also provides a methodology for calculating the weighted average of wetted surfaces.

Consumers must use water filters appropriately as defined by the manufacturers. Filtration systems must be changed regularly. Most filters use carbon, charcoal or a bend to reduce contaminants either by mechanically trapping them in the pores of containments or by absorbing the contaminants to the surface of the filter media. The frequency with which consumers should change their filters is dependent on the service cycle: the useful life of the filter. Manufacturers define the service cycle as a specific number of gallons or an estimated number of months of use before the consumer should change the filter. Choosing the right replacement cartridge is critical as well. Consumers must use the certified cartridge recommended by the manufacturer to remove the specific contaminants in their water, to ensure that the water is safe for drinking or other uses.

Keep in mind that although the best water filters are designed to remove/absorb many contaminants from water, human error must always be taken into account. Please carefully review the manufacturer’s instructions on how to install water filters and replace cartridges.

For more information, please join the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Environmental Engineering Special Interest Group (SIG) to continue the dialogue about Flint’s water crisis.

Research References:
Environmental Protection Agency: EPA.gov
Green America: Greenamerica.org
NSF International, The Public Health and Safety Organization: NSF.org