Dayton Engineer
Engineering Dean's Fund for Excellence and the Multi-Ethnic Engineers Program Outreach Initiative share engineering enthusiasm with students from first-grade to high school
By School of Engineering
The Multi-Ethnic Engineers Program Outreach Initiative is in its third year in the University of Dayton School of Engineering. This Initiative is thriving thanks to the leadership of Jada Cooper-Taylor, senior industrial engineering technology major and MEP ambassador, as well as through the support of the Engineering Dean’s Fund for Excellence.
Before starting at UD in 2017, Cooper-Taylor went to school five minutes from campus. And as a first-year engineering student at UD, she believed that we could be doing more to share engineering knowledge with the area’s younger, diverse population in a way that would be mutually beneficial for UD and the Dayton community.
As a first-year student, she had dreams of leaving an impact on her college community. Through MEP, she saw the outreach opportunity and seized it. Believing that diversity, inclusivity and equity was needed in engineering, she reached out to area schools with a program for young students that encouraged engineering involvement.
Cooper-Taylor worked with the Multi-Ethnic Engineers Program director, Gerica Brown, organized the MEP Outreach Initiative and helped students from first grade through high school discover engineering. They visited schools with informational engineering kits, a fun way to learn more about engineering, and also focused on homework help.
After three years of coordinating the MEP Outreach Initiative, she said that it will be “sad to be leaving her hometown for the first time as well as the Outreach Initiative." But, Cooper-Taylor has faith in the new MEP ambassadors, Robert Legrande and Nyah Johnson, and knows that the Outreach Initiative “will continue successfully in their capable hands.”
Covid-19 slowed the Outreach Initiative in 2020 but as vaccines continue to roll out, and hopefully the coronavirus numbers drop, Cooper-Taylor expects the “MEP Outreach Initiative to be better than ever coming fall 2021.”
This May, Jada Cooper-Taylor graduates and will leave the UD community for a position with Target with their engineering operations in Columbus, Ohio.
The UD School of Engineering would like to congratulate Jada Cooper-Taylor on her new position with Target and to thank her for leaving her impact not only on the surrounding community but also on the University of Dayton School of Engineering!