For GEM Fellows, APL Experience Critical to Career Goals
This past summer, APL hosted four engineering students through the GEM Engineering Fellowship Program, a program sponsored by the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc., to promote the benefits of a master’s degree within the industry. GEM Fellows are provided practical engineering summer work experiences through an employer sponsor and a portable academic year fellowship of tuition, fees, and a stipend that may be used at any participating GEM member university where the student is admitted. They also receive a $10,000 stipend over three semesters (or four quarters), a minimum of two paid summer internships with a GEM employer member, and full tuition and fees at a GEM member university.
Frankie Ramirez, who is pursuing a master’s degree in computer networking from North Carolina State University, learned of the program through an older friend in college who had applied for, and received, a GEM Fellowship. Ramirez was assigned to the Applied Information Science Department’s Cyber Warfare Systems Branch. During the summer, he carried out intensive and exhaustive susceptibility testing on various wireless fidelity devices to openly published exploits. The experience was critical to his career goals, he said. “This internship had me working with things that previous internships have not, which helps me become a better-rounded engineer. I feel that this deeper background makes me a more versatile candidate when it does come time to consider future employers.”
Gbolabo Okunmakin plans to be knee-deep in research for life. “I want to become a prominent researcher in the computer vision field whose research will have long-lasting beneficial impact on society,” said Okunmakin, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at The Georgia Institute of Technology. Okunmakin had interned at APL before, and he chose the Laboratory for his GEM Fellowship site because he liked the work environment. This summer, he worked in the Air and Missile Defense Department on an ocean surveillance project. “The experience helped improve my programming skills, and I learned new programming languages that will help me later on in my research,” he said.
and Winston Grey.
APL’s 2009 GEM Fellows commented on the historic pattern of under-representation for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans in engineering fields. Iverson Bell, who is studying electrical engineering at the University of Michigan, said part of the reason that minorities may not pursue degrees in scientific fields is that parents don’t encourage (or they outright discourage) their children from pursing these fields. He didn’t have that problem. His big sister, Lauren Bell—a former GEM fellow—told her little brother that because he liked math, engineering would be a good field for him.
“A lot of students interested in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields lack fundamental science and math training that would prepare them for a future in those fields,” added Bell, who worked in the National Security Analysis Department developing a metric hierarchy tool to facilitate the computation of metrics of effectiveness. Ramirez said the issue is the lack of visible role models in the field. “America glorifies entertainment-based careers such as rapping or playing basketball as the most viable careers, and unfortunately that’s where minority kids find their role models,” he said.
“Career fields that require more effort academically, such as becoming a doctor or an engineer, fall onto the backburner and are not often given attention outside of the classroom. We still live in a time where intelligent students get shunned in the classroom for being smart or working hard. I think people should put more stock in college and professional programs that do outreach and shadowing for children to show them that it’s definitely possible and those role models do exist.”