Recognition

Based in Warrendale, Pa., SAE International is a global association of more than 121,000 engineers and related technical experts in the automotive, aerospace and commercial-vehicle industries. SAE's core competencies are standards development and lifelong learning. Through its charitable arm, the SAE Foundation, the organization supports engineering education for college and pre-college students, with programs such as the Collegiate Design Series, which enables university students to apply classroom theory by designing and building vehicles ranging from hybrid cars to model aircraft, and A World in Motion, which provides students in grades K-12 the opportunity to work with engineers in hands-on projects referred to as "challenges."

In 2007, NSBE and SAE came together and realized they had a common goal of increasing African-American K-12 students' exposure to math, science and engineering and thereby potentially increasing the representation of minorities in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. SAE was in search of deeper access to minority groups and inner-city areas, while NSBE desired a rigorous standards-based curriculum to use in its pre-college initiatives. The synergy between these two needs was immediately apparent, and the pilot Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) program was born.

SEEK combined SAE's award-winning A World in Motion curricula with a staff of dedicated volunteers recruited from NSBE's collegiate membership pool, to create a three-week day camp experience for minority youth. In addition, both organizations brought the corporate sponsors Battelle and Caterpillar Inc. to the table to cosponsor the pilot program. The inaugural camp took place during the summer of 2007 at Friendship Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. The pilot program was an overwhelming success, as the roster filled to its capacity of 300 students and more than 200 students joined the waiting list. The first-year success of the program led to the expansion of the Washington, D.C., SEEK Camp in 2008 to include 300 middle school students. In addition, the Battelle Foundation recruited Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. to expand the program to Columbus, Ohio, for the summer of 2008.