Graduating Students Make their Marks Locally, Globally: A Michigan engineer pays it forward

One Saturday morning as a fifth-grader, Christopher Boyd built a bridge out of popsicle sticks and decided engineering was cool.

Now, more then a decade later, he will graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.

He has spent much of his college career here giving back — trying to instill in his fellow students an excitement for the field and the skills to succeed in it.

“Chris really has been a role model and a leader,” says Jeanne Murabito, executive director for student affairs at the College of Engineering. “He has always been interested in helping others discover their passions and dreams.”

As a teenager at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Boyd joined the robotics team. During his sophomore year in college, he mentored teens who were competing in the same national robotics competition at the Michigan Engineering Zone at U-M’s Detroit Center.

Boyd is part of the first graduating cohort of the Center for Engineering Diversity and Outreach’s M-STEM Academy, an intensive program designed to help students succeed. During his first two years here, that program, he says, gave him “training wheels” as he transitioned to the demands of the university. In the second half of Boyd’s time here, he coached incoming students through M-STEM and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), at one point organizing a “how to study for finals” workshop.

“I know that when I came in to college, I was sometimes confused. Even in high school, whenever I wondered what I could do with engineering or my career, there were always older students who would tell me what it’s like and how to succeed,” says Boyd, who is in the process of deciding where to go for his doctorate in electrical engineering.

“I think it’s important to train the people who are coming up after you.”

Story taken from: The University Record
Nicole Casal Moore, News Service