Huntington News

Issue date: 5/9/07 Section: Campus Life

Media Credit: News Staff Photo/Zach Virgilio Middler computer engineering major Tamika Gordon, a member of Northeastern's Black Engineering Student Society, helped local high school students broaden their academic experience this year.

Tamika Gordon is soft-spoken. She is a middler computer engineering major, a McNair Mentor and a Resident Assistant. She is also the architect of a bridge she designed herself. It spans from the university's Black Engineering Student Society (BESS) to a high school community less than one mile's walk from campus.

For almost four years, Gordon has been involved with Northeastern's chapter of BESS.

"When I came for orientation, someone told me about it," she said. "They said it was great, so I started going to meetings as a general member. In my second year, I became the financier."

Another year passed and Gordon was promoted to the executive board as its Pre-Collegiate Initiative (PCI) co-chair. She has retained that title, and is nominally responsible for encouraging high-school students to develop interests and skills in math and science.

Gordon's new role inspired her to rekindle an old relationship between City on a Hill, a Boston charter school, and BESS.

"We had a chapter with them in previous years, but it was inactive," she said.

City on a Hill, located near Northeastern at 320 Huntington Ave., is a tuition-free public charter school whose mission statement is "to graduate responsible, resourceful and respectful democratic citizens prepared to advance community [and] culture."

Similarly, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), according to its website, seeks to "increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community."

For Gordon, the school's location and the ideological similarities between City on a Hill and the National Society of Black Engineers, BESS's parent organization, were ample enough reasons to resurrect their connection.

Gordon said many City on a Hill students were already familiar with Northeastern's campus. They pass through it frequently and use its facilities.

"But this was a good opportunity to show them about students, engineering and university organizations," she said.

Continued...

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