By Neil Nachbar

It’s important for engineering students to have mentors who lend support and offer helpful advice as they enter their profession.

It’s especially important for female, minority students – a population sorely underrepresented in the engineering field – to have mentors who can relate to the challenges they face.

A group of 20 URI students, known as the Black and Brown Women in Engineering Sciences and Technology Sisterhood, was formed in the fall of 2019.

“We formed the group after discussing the adversities we face as minority women in STEM and wanting to have more resources and support available to women of color who also feel this way,” said Renee Gordon, a biomedical engineering major who is in URI’s German International Engineering Program.

A senior from St. Catherine, Jamaica, Gordon was one of four founding members of the sisterhood. The other three students were Dira Delpech a civil engineering and French major from Lomé, Togo; Pascaline Uwase, a biomedical engineering major from Kigali, Rwanda; and Fatima Issa, a biomedical engineering major from Worcester, Massachusetts.

The group held its first event, a two-hour conversation via Webex with alumnae Marlyn Mendoza Hart and Yasah Vezele, on April 13.

Mendoza Hart earned her bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from URI in 2012. She’s pursuing her master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering at URI while working as a project design engineer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Vezele earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with a pharmaceutical track from URI in 2010 and her master’s degree in pharmaceutical science from URI in 2014. She works as a senior support specialist at Waters Corp. in Milford, Massachusetts.

“I wanted to convey that any failures in life are merely small steps on the path of achieving your goals,” said Mendoza Hart. “Failures don’t define us, they help build us. Learn from them, move on and keep fighting for your dreams and goals.” 

Gordon and the other members felt an immediate connection to the alumnae.

“They expressed that as minorities, we can overcome the odds and succeed in the engineering field,” said Gordon. “They explained that there are endless resources that can close the gap between just having an idea and actually executing a plan.”

The group asked Mendoza Hart and Vezele a wide range of questions.

“Some of the questions we asked had to do with how to maintain mental, emotional and physical health while dealing with academics,” said Gordon. “Other questions were about professional development and academic performance.”

While at URI, Mendoza Hart and Vezele were involved in the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program, which led to many opportunities.

Mendoza Hart’s LSAMP experience enabled her to complete a summer fellowship in Professor Vinka Oyanedel-Craver’s Sustainable & Environmental Technologies Laboratory. She also worked as an LSAMP summer mentor, conducting hands-on experiential learning for students in kindergarten through grade 12.

Through LSAMP, Vezele participated in the Research in Science and Engineering summer fellowship program at Rutgers University in 2009 and the summer fellowship in Experimental Program to Stimulate Research (EPSCoR) in 2008.

As an LSAMP scholar and mentor, Vezele received several honors, including the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education Fellowship, the Diversity Award for Student Excellence, and the Jerry M. & Evelyn L. Rhodes Memorial Merit Scholarship. 

Since the Webex event, the student group has held weekly meetings electronically and hopes to continue in the summer with bi-weekly meetings to keep members engaged and share ideas on how to proceed next semester. 

Any students in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics major who are interested in joining the Black and Brown Women in Engineering Sciences and Technology Sisterhood should contact the College’s Assistant Director of Diversity Charles Watson at hitman@uri.edu.