Taylor N. Lacey: NSBE

This past weekend was my last weekend as the Official NSBE president and my last Blue and White Game. It keeps hitting me that I get to leave this wonderful place and start in the real world - day by day, event by event. The weekend started with the annual NSBE Endowment Banquet. WE had a ton of our chapter come out as well as our advisor and one of our sponsors.

I had to give the State of the Chapter address. I talked about a lot of things that we did that were awesome this year and some things to work on! It's really exciting to see how many different new things that we brought to our chapter and will continue to get to the chapter. I also won the Ms. Impact award because I made an big impact on our NSBE chapter this year and that almost made me cry. It was so good to end my term with all this happy energy and I cannot wait to see what my best friend does as president! That night, I had engineering girl powwow with some of my friends and some awesome hard cider because we did not want to be hungover for tailgating on Saturday :]

Saturday started with mimosas and waffle tacos at KH's house. I was so excited to try something different and she knows how to throw down in the kitchen! (Thanks a million times, KH!)

After eating, we went tailgating before the game and it was awesome! I got to see a lot of my favorites and meet parents and family that came up for the weekend. There was plenty of food and alcohol dispersed with water because day drinking is an art at Penn State.

I wore a dress because that's how I dress for football games. It is an old one from Old Navy tied with a ribbon from Abercrombie. My little bag is from Kohl's and I had on some white Tennis shoes from Walmart because they are cheap and I don't care if they get messed up!

As with any tailgate - there is a ton of sitting in truck beds, drinking shots out of ice luges and dancing. I went into the game for a little bit at the end because I wanted to be in Beaver Stadium one last time as an undergraduate. It was bittersweet but my friend SS got this awesome shot of me and the Lion happened to be coming by. TALK ABOUT LUCK! That night I went to Liberty -a beer bar that I will have to do a review of - it was that awesome. I hung out with new friends from a club I am in and we had a blast playing Heads Up at the bar! Overall, I had a great time this weekend and it really cemented a great year with a great last Blue and White Game.

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Blue and White Weekend 2015

NSBE

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This weekend, I attended the Spring End Zone Summit in Pittsburgh, PA and had a fabulous time. Every time I attend a NSBE event, I feel so inspired again to do as many good things with chapter as

Possible before my term ends. There were a couple of highlights that I wanted to share about why this summit was especially awesome!

The summit started with two awesome things that were historical and especially welcome during Black History Month. We had a very inspiring speech from the first African American woman to graduate from Pitt Engineering. It was crazy to here some of what she had to deal with. Her teachers doubted her simply because she was a girl! She could not even take ROTC (physical education is required to graduate) because they did not allow females in the program. After hearing her struggle, it reminded me of why I am such an advocate for NSBE. There are many people who do not get the chances I get and I will keep fighting to make sure that one day, a lot more diverse students can be engineers one day.

The second awesome history lesson was a NSBE history lesson. Our NSBE National Chair, the president of our organization, taught the lesson. NSBE was started by the Chicago Six at Purdue University. They held the first NSBE national conference during a time where the students had to drive through the night to avoid the KKK but still came because it was that important to them. Towards the end of the presentation, there was a slide about statistics. The sad fact about the state of engineers is that though there are more black engineers graduating than during the time of the Chicago Six, 4% of the engineers graduating are black! That number needs to be higher but also there needs to more groups represented. We are all so smart!

We had a ton of great workshops - more about those tomorrow or this post will be a novel ;)

We did an activity with high school students. We made silly putty using borax, glue and water. One of my senators and I were teamed with the best girl! She was so funny and sassy and she taught me a lot about what the young people like now - Tyler Oakley and lots of YouTube. I always love working with high school students because they have so much potential to be the future of America.

Our chapter had a break until 8:30 and we ended up staying at my membership chair's house. It turns out her parents were celebrating her birthday and she had us all over there. We had a great time with her family, meeting her cousins and bonding with other NSBE chapters that come over to her house to celebrate too!

We stayed overnight for the first time during an End Zone Summit. I stayed with a lovely girl and we ended up going out in Pittsburgh on the south side with all the legal students. We had a great time navigating the bars and teasing all of our friends.

The second day was filled with more chapter focused activities. We had to plan an event using all the members of the board but they could not meet face to face. Only the president could meet everyone and had to pass information along. We were allowed to use technology which as cool but still hard because I think face to face meetings are the most effective for my board. loved this facade on this building. I think it is a human body but something about it was cute to me!

Of course, I had to stop at my favorite place in Pittsburgh. Peace, Love and Little Donuts is a small donut shop on Meyran Avenue. They have different frostings and toppings. I always get the Disco Half Dozen because you get 2 "plain". two with frosting and then two with toppings and frosting. This time, I got two glazed, a raspberry frosted, lemon frosted, an apple pie and m&m. They were all delicious the next day.

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Spring End Zone Summit

NSBE

Outfit: Dinner Banquets

This weekend was a whirlwind of NSBE inspiration for me. It was so well received because I am getting burnt out with school, being president, working and making sure that I pick the best full time job possible. My chapter drove down to Pitssburgh from campus on Friday. When we got settled in the hotel, I took a look around and I loved this flower arrangement for the Thanksgiving season.

Here is my chapter at our opening session where we got some great speeches and some inspiration quotes. That's why I posted this today - so much inspiration to share with you today! The keynote speaker for the night was Dr. Kathy Humphrey, a dean at Pitt. She was preaching to us, the passion in her voice blew me away!

Let me just list the one liners that she threw at at us in the time she had to speak:

It is a gift to receive a higher education.
If we don't lift as we climb, the world will stay the same.
To be a leader means that you are doing something great. Leadership is the act of taking zero and make it the sum of something great.
You are creating the future.

It was awesome, the things that she had to say! We then went to our Zone Session and got to meet a ton of new people!

The next morning started at 8 am and it was a whirlwind of a day. There were multiple workshops including the most helpful one for me: a collaboration between chapter presidents that talked about all of our real issues. I even got to talk with our regional chair and our national chairperson, both who are the sweetest people.

After a long day or workshops, we had a dinner but before that, I sat with my chapter and wanted to know how they felt about the conference so far. We brought a lot of new people and I loved them seeing the passion everyone has for this organization.

At the dinner, our assistant dean of multicultural engineering gave the keynote speech. Dr. Amy Freeman killed it. My favorite line from her was " Smart is the new Black." After the dinner, there was a little party that I went to with my whole chapter who didn't go into Pittsburgh for the night. It was a lot of fun hanging with the young ones and making a fool of myself with my dance moves.

The next morning yielded a closing session with feedback and a video we made for the other regions to understand we are coming to Nationals in March! I had a little break before we left, so I spent it reading and eating a breakfast in the lovely hotel bed. Getting home and back to reality was tough but I'm really glad that I went to the conference even though I am sick and tired!

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Fall Regional Conference

Posts have been sparse and I apologize for that. I literally worked 10-12 hour days during my internship, went to sleep and woke up to do it again. Then I had a week to sort out my life before I had to go back to school and had a crazy weekend before I could start class. Finally, I am done with my internship and move-in and I have so much to share.

The weekend before my last week of work, I had a ton of fun. I really just tried to eat and do everything that is my favorite in Boston! Saturday, I spent the day in Boston Common, eating Sweetgreen and finishing up The Power of Habit. It was such a peaceful day.

Sunday, I wanted to go back to the Charles River and really explore that area before I left. It was worth all the confusion of trying to cross the road that separates the housing from the little park. Look at that view! I read my book, ate a little ice cream and just relaxed.

I worked two crazy days. Then, I flew to Dallas early Wednesday morning, went to my company's headquarters and met a ton of great people who inspired me to really consider working there. Below is a picture of me at Headquarters - the pond behind me has koi, turtles and catfish. It was so gorgeous and nice that the space is preserved so well that nature can creep up very close the the buildings.

Thursday was the dreaded regional presentation in front of RVPs and all of my fellow region interns. I was second to last in the order of presentations, hadn't slept due to nerves and practicing but I killed that presentation. I might have said my team at work were my bffs to the RVPs (covers eyes and hides). Below is a picture of Lili and I's relieved smiles that we sent our managers. I did hear that my project was one of the best in the region and that really made me happy that I helped make my team happier at work.

Lili and I came home and went right back to work the next day. MY LAST DAY! Jesus Christ. I loved working there this summer. I went to Boston one last time with Lili and we had a low key time. California Pizza Kitchen, Christian Science Reflecting Pool and showing her some cute spots for her date the next day were the name of the game.

I packed to come home on Saturday. SO MUCH CLOTHES. After driving home, I ended up at a family party seeing people I haven't seen since New Years. I was so happy to see all of them, especially the boy I've know since he was born is now a young man! How time flies!

Last week before going back to school, I focused on organizing and going through my stuff! It was really good to donate like three garbage bags full of clothing and pare down what I'm bringing to school this year. I also got matching teal bins (GO TARGET), more furniture and just a general sense of neatness for the school year.

When I had to leave for school Friday and that was a doozy! I had to move in at 7:30 pm on Friday, drive to Virginia and back for a NSBE conference and then train for work on Sunday. Below is a picture of my fellow NSBE End Zone Presidents. They are the sweetest group of guys!

Late Sunday, I had to have a house meeting with my roommates and just generally get ready for the first day of school. Before I knew it, it was 1 am and I needed to get some sleep! In this crazy time, I dropped my phone in the sink and then basically had no phone for a couple days. Rice saved the day but I secretly kind of liked now being available.

I will be back to regular posting this week and I am so pumped to share some of the things I've been working on for the blog. Expect some cool game day outfit posts, guest posts from some of my friends as well as some more engineering lifestyle content. It's been a busy summer but I really love writing this as a creative outlet and I thank the people who actually read my posts. Y'all are the best.

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Two Weekends and Whirlwind of A Week

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One Book A Month

Words cannot express how much NSBE has come to mean to me this year. Currently, I am treasurer and conference planning chair. It makes my life insane but I love it so much. The culmination of all that planning was at our NSBE conference.My chapter members were troopers with all the changes in plans and travel time.

My beautiful chapter - Penn State University Park

After 13 hours of riding in the bus, we arrived in Nashville at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Conference Center. The conference center was gorgeous! So southern and charming! We checked in and waited to get all of our room keys.

While waiting, we explored a little through out the conference center. Look at that water!

Afterwards, we freshened up after getting into our rooms. We went to opening session, learned about how diversity is important and how elevators were optimized weight wise. We ate dinner and then went off to mingle with other NSBE chapters. Afterwards, we went to bed and had to be up early for our regional morning meetings. At the Thursday meeting, I did my speech for End Zone Coordinator and met some new chapter presidents. WE all attended workshops and the career fair. Overall, it was an awesome first day of conference. We got ready for general session and got to hear from some interesting people at our conference.

Thursday's featured speaker was Governor R. Musgrove. He was so funny and he really made my day. My favorite thing he talked about was being from a small town and how it instilled very good values in him. "Right words, wrong time" was one of my favorite anecdotes from him. After a belly full of laughs, we left general session in a great mood. After a night full of laughs and new faces, we turned in to get up early again!

Here are pictures of my senators, the current president and me the conference planing chair talking before our Friday morning regional session. We always have such interesting discussions and we were also wishing Malik well because he ran for a regional position as well - Regional Vice Chair - basically vice president of one of the 6 regions in NSBE. WE went to workshops, some of my chapter had interviews (!!!) and ate lunch with each other - developing relationships :]

On Friday at General Session, Karla Bonzie spoke about how women and diversity impact leadership. I loved that she highlighted women have skills men do not realize and make very good leaders. One of my favorite slides from her presentation was one about skills that women have vs skills that great leaders have. More of the skills that great leaders have were in line with what women naturally tend to do. We are empathetic, practical, logical, thinkers on the large scope and can effectively use both halves of our brains simultaneously. The men in the audience didn't love that but I enjoyed hearing what she had to say.

Avery Williams is the Region II Chair emeritus and he went to Penn State. He just graduated in Aerospace Engineering and he really helped our chapter become a big name at Nationals. The picture above is of AW's cool tie-knot. He's just cool in general.

Above is a photo of our two-term National Chairperson Sossena Wood at Saturday Morning's

General Session.. She is awesome! A PhD student at Pitt and changing the world in bio-medical engineering research. She is one of my hugest inspirations that you can do anything you put your mind to. We all went to more workshops and then got ready for the Golden Torch Awards.

The Golden Torch Awards highlight technical and personal excellence within the members of our organization. It is a great honor to be chosen and it really inspires me every year to hear what they are doing in engineering. The options of engineers, especially black engineers are limitless and driven by your focus. Attending GTA always centers me to do well for the rest of the school year! Young guru, Jay-Z's producer came and spoke to us- it was a very motivational speech. BOB performed after to close out the award show.

Golden Torch Dress - a vintage dress from one of my old jobs and silver ruffly pumps!

Me and SK dressed up! - Look at her shoes!!!

We headed home after GTA and it was smooth sailing. Sleeping on the bus and laughing at all the silliness that occurred. Even though I did not get the position of End zone Coordinator, I am still furthering my role in NSBE. I love my chapter and I am proud to tell you all that I am serving as President next year! I cannot wait to impact our membership on a larger scale and really bring our chapter to a higher level.

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