09/17/2026
True Story: I joined NSBE as a freshman engineering major at Cornell University back in 1997, because I was lost and needed somewhere to belong. First in the family to college and clueless about how to navigate college life and being at an Ivy League PWI.
That organization got me through some of the hardest years of my life. I traveled the country. I stepped in rooms with young brown aspiring engineers and professionals of color in tech from across the country who reminded me I wasn’t alone, that I wasn’t imagining the extra weight I was carrying l; and that I could absolutely build something incredible with my life.
By 2020, I became the NSBE Chapter President at Cornell, attempting to pour back into the community that poured into me.
And then two months ago, I was contacted with this incredible news. NSBE NYC Professionals Chapter reached out to share I was nominated but that they would circle back if I was ultimately selected to be honored this year at their Black Tech Gala. And they did. They wanted to recognize me. Me. I genuinely don’t know who to thank and I still don’t know who nominated me.
👉🏼 But I know this: everything since Cornell, the B.S. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, the combined 20 years in STEM education and school leadership, and now leading Carib Biz Network (CBN) , where I get to hand Caribbean entrepreneurs the tools to build economic power in our diaspora — all traces back to what NSBE taught me at 18 years old. That our success was never meant to be individual. It was always meant to be distributed.
I’ll be at the Black Tech Honors Awards Gala on September 24th with a full heart. Thank you, NSBE NYC. This one means everythinggggg. 🖤🤎
Confession: I STILL have NSBE merch from undergrad stored away. 🥹
Pinch me.
Thursday, September 24th, 2026
Doors: 7:00 PM
Lighthouse Rooftop | 45-15 37th St, Long Island City
Black Tie (required) | Colors: Black, Gold, Ivory (optional)
