Letter from the President

NAMEPA has provided a great service to students, administrators, and the engineering industry for three decades. We are excited to announce that we will be celebrating 30 years of accomplishment in Los Angeles at the national conference on February 26-28, 2009. Our theme is: Advancing Diversity in Engineering: Helping America Compete . We will recognize our historical contributions and set the agenda for the future in a formal gala awards event to be held at the Sony Building . We are sure that this will be an evening that no one will want to miss!

Times have changed since NAMEPA began in 1979. Since that time, the enrollments of underrepresented students in college engineering programs have tripled. The pipeline has broadened to include community colleges, high school advocacy programs, and a focus on graduate school as well as professional development. Corporations can't hire enough engineers to fill the demands of the future, and students have global exposure to the world.

One thing has remained constant: No singular organization has more interaction with all groups of underrepresented students than NAMEPA. Today, NAMEPA members provide retention programming and professional development to 28,000 students enrolled at universities across the nation. In addition, we provide recruitment and outreach for pre-college students and graduate students. All NAMEPA members act as liaisons forging relationships between industry leaders, students and university administrators to increase the technical pool our country needs.

Our 2009 conference will focus on the national efforts to make a STEM education and career opportunities accessible to all. Our strategy for going forward will include some positive changes that will keep NAMEPA in the spotlight as the experts on student recruitment, retention, graduation and professional development.

We are pleased to roll out a new conference event that will showcase 100+ of our top students from NAMEPA member schools. We would like representation of one or two students from a broad cross-section of colleges across the country. These students will have access to our industry partners and university partners with graduate school opportunities. We welcome the future. We look forward to the success of the next 30 years.

Please join us in LA!

Amy Freeman, President