Students at HU Take A LEAD In Resolving Traffic Issues
Dept. of Energy sponsors LEAD program

Hampton, VA -Minority rising high school seniors from around the nation are engaged in the “LEAD (Leadership Education and Development):  The Business of Engineering” program at Hampton University this week.  The one-week program is an entertaining and interactive opportunity to learn more about the worlds of engineering and business.

Students will attend a series of presentations and workshops that will aid them in completing a case study to be presented on Friday, August 3.  LEAD students will develop case study recommendations for improving traffic and travel conditions in Hampton Roads.  Students will also participate in a bridge building exercise, visit with Busch Gardens engineers, learn about the business of engineering, and experience the Virginia Air and Space Center among other activities.

“We are trying to expose students to what engineers do and motivate them to thinking about engineering as a career,” said Dr. Eric Sheppard, dean of the School of Engineering and Technology.

Sheppard also explained that as students arrived in Hampton Roads for the LEAD program they received first-hand experience in their case study topic.

“[HU] is a very good laboratory,” said Sheppard.  “We were in a traffic jam on the way here from the Norfolk Airport.”

Students selected for the HU LEAD program have recently completed a competitive three-week summer program at top U.S. business schools at Duke University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, the University of Georgia, and Georgetown University.

The HU LEAD program has objectives of integrating the knowledge students learned in the summer business program with knowledge of the engineering profession.  Students will also have exposure to cutting-edge software used to solve problems in the engineering industry.

This is the first year in the 27-year history of the LEAD program that students have had the opportunity to study at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU).

Richard H. Ramsey III, president of the national LEAD organization based in Philadelphia, is a 1987 HU graduate and a 1999 MBA graduate of the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

The HU LEAD program is sponsored by a $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

For more information on the LEAD program visit www.leadprogram.org.