APPENDIX FULL LISTING OF COMMENTS IN EACH RECURRING THEME
18 Lack connection/response via phone/email at National Level
• “My experience - I am a little concerned about the experience of my students. Our students need mentors. When we call NSBE we need someone to answer the phone. When we reply to an e-mail, we need that person to respond.” • I live in Florida and so far no one has not contacted me at all. I feel as a member that I should be involved and so far I haven’t been. • NSBE organization as a whole is very useful in finding opportunities and experiences for black people. It is also excellent for networking and creating a network for black S.T.E.M professionals and collegiates. The only downside is each chapter is only as good as its chapter’s president and faculty advisor. For example, the chapter at NC A & T is one of the best and had helpful upperclassmen and e-board members who trained and coached there younger counterparts. Since joining the one at UMES, it has been a stark difference in that the president has a very dictatorial approach to leading and refuses to share opportunities and has not set up any professional development events. When one of the members tried to reach out to the faculty advisor for aid, they were rudely reprimanded and embarrassed by the president of our chapter. being one of the senators, I have tried to make suggestions to both the president and our faculty advisor to no avail. • I love the opportunity to be a part of a great program. My score is really based on the change that occurs every school year. As a NSBE Jr. Chapter Advisor for 9th-12th grade students (many 12th graders), I find it difficult to determine who to talk to and who to connect with at the beginning of the school year in the Fall. Often, the emails are not answered, the phone messages are not answered or monitored, the website links to activities
may be inactive or incorrect, google search links will take me to an inactive page on nsbe.org and so forth. I really think that there should be a significant overlap between the previous year’s officers and offices and the current year’s officers and offices. I do not know how to make that happen but after being a chapter advisor for 4 years now, it has been very difficult to be able to collaborate and coordinate with nsbe before the Fall Regional Conference and sometimes not until after Christmas. This year I sent an email to Richard Z White, whose name and email I had run across via a Google Search. He then forwarded my email to CJ Kirk and Yvette Selby. I then asked CJ for information about the Spring Terror Zone Summit. He sent me the information. Afterwards, I asked him if he would know of any NSBE member who could help me at our high school STEAM Expo by representing NSBE. I never heard back from him. I was approached by another NSBE representative for DC a week before the STEAM Expo. She sent an email to me out of the blue. I asked her if she knew of any NSBE member who could come to speak to my students or come to the STEAM Expo and represent but there was no way to organize that on such short notice. I had actually sent emails and received no response earlier in the school year. It has been really frustrating over the years. My high school students benefit greatly from seeing college Engineering students who look like them but getting help from NSBE to make that happen has not been at all simple. • The east bay chapter I put my son in turned out to be fraudulent and/or scam. I reached out to the president and/or director of NSBE and was not offered any help. And because of this situation I had, I’m not 100% sure if I want to put my child in any other program.
National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Stakeholder Pulse Checks 37
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