Pamela McCauley, the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in industrial engineering in Oklahoma, was one of the first students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields to win a Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) for Student Leadership.
At the 2023 BEYA Conference, the award will go to Erron Williams, a chemical engineering student at Prairie View A&M University, who has served in more than five voluntary positions with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
The Black Engineer of the Year Student Leadership Award is given to undergraduate and graduate students who are outstanding contributors on university campuses and in local communities.
In 2016, Malachi Nichols, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arkansas, won the award for serving as a robotics teacher, and a director’s assistant to an AmeriCorps Service Member during his undergraduate degree.
Marvin Carr won the 2015 BEYA for Student Leadership for work that went on to become the topic for his doctoral research in electrical and electronics engineering at Morgan State University.
Carr coordinated a program with Baltimore’s Department of Park and Recreation that offered robotics, math, and maker education opportunities for young people aged 4 to 18. He also founded the Innovative Institute of Robotics Innovation and Systems Engineering.
More recently, Amanda Nash, then a biomedical engineering senior at the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston, received a Student Leadership Award at the BEYA STEM Conference for excellence in undergraduate biomedical research.
Other Student Leadership Award winners at the 2018 BEYA Student Leadership gala included Latarence Butts and Daziyah Sullivan, two Florida A&M University – Florida State University (FAMU-FSU) College of Engineering students, who are working to diversify and educate the environmental movement.
Naomi Mburu, a 2018 chemical engineering graduate, is the first student in UMBC history to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. As a Rhodes Scholar, Mburu is attending Oxford University in England to pursue her Ph.D. in engineering.
Student Leadership Award Winners at BEYA
2017
Meshika Brown
Mechanical Engineering and Math Student
Prairie View A&M University
Samuel Sentongo
Cadet
U.S. Air Force Academy
2016
Andre Evans
Midshipman First Class
U.S. Naval Academy
2013
Je’aime Powell
NOVA Southeastern University
Ph.D. Computer Information Systems
2012
Candace P. Cooley
Department of Defense
Missile Defense Agency
2009
Midshipman Jordan Onque Blake
Ocean Engineering
U.S. Naval Academy
Ryan Clark
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2008
Arielle Drummond
Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
2007
Julius Gunn
University of Tennessee
Rolls-Royce
2006
Marquita Adams
College Co-op Student
General Motors Powertrain
2005
Shannon Chambers
Undergraduate Student, Department of Civil Engineering
Florida A&M University
Terri R. Norton
Ph.D. Student, College of Engineering
Florida A&M University
Chad D. Sterling
Computer Science Major/Intern
University of California Davis/Hewlett-Packard Company
Emmanuel A. Cephas
Student
Frostburg State University
2003
Justin M. Bond
College Student Intern
Powertrain Division, General Motors/Michigan State University
2002
Roberto W. Young
University of Memphis
The Boeing Company
2001
Clifton Sean Martin
Electrical Engineering Student
Morgan State University