BU’s Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers Thrives
Remi Shittu leads the chapter to success
By Liz Sheeley
Remi Shittu (ENG ’19) was recruited into the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) at BU early in her freshman year. This past academic year and her senior year, she was president of the chapter. Her leadership pushed the group to create new programs and recruit many more members, resulting in the chapter winning more awards than any other in their region last year.
She credits much of the success to her executive board who she would let run with their own ideas.
“I gave them the freedom to be creative with our weekly meetings and to change things up,” Shittu says. “As a leader I knew I couldn’t do everything myself and that there was someone on the board who could execute an idea better than I could.”
Ryan Cully, A’zsa Johnson, Abdul Ka; middle row (left to right): Stacey Samedi, Empress Kelley, Fatima Dantsoho, Marybelle Raymond, Briana Mayes, Phoebe Ato, Ciara Allen; seated: Remi Shittu)
During the National Convention for NSBE in March, BU’s chapter won six awards in their region, which includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, East Canada, and West Africa. They were awarded Chapter of the Year, Chapter of the Month for January, Chapter of the Spring Semester, the Pre-Collegiate Initiative Award, the Award of the Colorful Flame (for their community service efforts), and Member of the Spring Semester, which went to Phoebe Ato (ENG ’21).
The new programs that drove this attention included STEM Day, a conference hosted by the NSBE students that welcomed underrepresented students from area schools to tour the engineering facilities on campus, learn basic engineering principles, hear speakers and participate in an egg drop challenge.
“I really wanted to plan events that were impactful and involve students outside of engineering,” says Shittu. “I noticed there was a large amount of people who we could reach, but who we weren’t, and I realized that there was a lot we could learn from the people within the BU community.”
She decided to partner with other similar groups on campus to make each group’s programming more effective. Instead of repeating the same networking night they had held before, Shittu decided to ask the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) if they wanted to join forces and host one night instead of having their separate events. That resulted in the largest networking event the NSBE chapter ever had, with 14 companies in attendance instead of six.
In addition, the group also held open forum discussions to talk about pressing issues in the community in a series called Real Talks. Students from outside of ENG could attend, but the topics were still relevant to the group’s mission and included things like technology addiction and internet bullying.
She says that the NSBE didn’t just help her grow professionally, but also gave her a support system.
“There are many points in engineering when certain classes can break you,” she says. “But having this gave me a network outside of my family, people who helped me along the way.”
During her junior year when she was vice president of external affairs, the chapter had about 15-20 active members. But this past year, under her leadership, they had about 40-45 active members.
“I didn’t want to settle for what had always worked,” says Shittu. “I wanted to push the envelope.”