Research

My research interests involves the identification of correlation between engineering student success and community engagement and outreach. Specifically, whether engineering students who engage in community outreach throughout their matriculation perform better, academically, socially and professionally than their other counterparts who participate in sporadic and/or no outreach activities.

Community engagement has been a part of my life prior to completing my engineering degree. While studying as a Freshman, I worked as a Program Manager for the Summer Transportation Institute at Tennessee State University. This program trained and equipped college students with the tools and skills to tutor and mentor 6th and 7th Grade students interested in STEM. Upon graduating and entering the workforce, I continued to work and promote STEM as a Transportation Engineer with Gresham Smith and Partners. I mentored college students in various competitions and served as an industry adviser to student organizations. Upon entering academia, it was natural to continue my community engagement and outreach activities associated with promoting STEM education. Currently, I serve as a member of the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology’s Outreach Committee. One of the group’s goals is to promote STEM education and career growth through community engagement. In addition, I have partnered with Bagwell College of Education to work with K-12 educators through the Math Science Partnership Program. This program provides intensive, content-rich professional development to teachers and other educators, with the goal of improving classroom instruction and, ultimately, student achievement in math and science. Recently, I served as the coordinator of the Georgia Youth Science and Technology Center’s STEM Teacher Academy. The Academy focuses on integrating STEM education content with business-industry best practices to provide teachers real-world experience that can be utilized in the classroom.