The MILL, the School of Materials Science and Engineering's makerspace, specializes in helping students  gain hands-on experience in measuring material properties like strength at failure, porosity, and hardness. Sharon's biggest role was managing and teaching at the MILL's first set of public workshops. These workshops included activities such as creating stained glass pieces and making greetings cards using alcohol inks. “I ended up starting our workshop series at the MILL on a whim because I saw how successful other campus makerspaces were with holding these types of events and thought it would be a great idea to host some workshops of our own to promote the MILL and teach the wider campus community about materials science.” Sharon says. “We had our first workshop in October 2018 and I've been teaching at them ever since. I actually fell in love with teaching and am now considering if I would like to tutor students in the future or even become a professor.”  

Sharon notes the importance in giving students a chance to be creative, and helping them create something they wouldn't be able to make elsewhere. “I feel that I don't see a lot of artistic opportunities sometimes at Tech, and many students have been really grateful to have a chance to come in for an hour or two during their busy weeks and make glass mosaics, whittle a soap/wood sculpture, create a stained glass artwork, paint with some alcohol inks, or cut their own sticker. I'm incredibly thankful to the campus community for supporting us and to the MILL's exec board for helping to make this possible.”

As Ndeyanta notes, “The Georgia Tech Society of Black Engineers is an organization that leverages that national mission of the NSBE to truly fulfill the Georgia Tech mission of Progress & Service.” This year, they were awarded the National Chapter of the Year, an award that pays tribute to the hard work and achievements of the organization. “We pride ourselves on providing numerous platforms to fulfill our mission while being a completely student run organization that develops well-rounded leaders who are engaged on campus and in the Atlanta community.”   

The Georgia Tech chapter hosts many activities to fulfill their mission, including weekly study halls and professional development sessions. As president, Ndeyanta was the face of the organization and worked to craft a vision for the academic year. “I led the organization with the vision that gave all of our membership the opportunity to to define their ARC. Their academics, their relationships and their community. Despite the differences that may exist between every individual member, I felt that GTSBE had not only the opportunity, but the obligation to help all achieve their academic goals, establish relationships with critical stakeholders across the Institute and develop the best programs and initiatives for the community.”

When asked about the best part of being involved in GTSBE, Ndeyanta says it’s about being able to give back to the community and seeing all the wonderful things that membership can accomplish with the support from the organization. If you are interested in becoming involved with GTSBE and creating a lasting impact on the GT/ATL community, check out their website at gtsbe.org or find them on social media @gtsbe!