Get Cordelia Brown talking about how her office’s new location has impacted its mission, and you’ll hear one word over and over: Transform.
“It has really transformed what we do and what our students can do,” Brown said.
Brown serves as director of the Engineering Academic Excellence Program (AEP), an academic and professional development support program launched in 1996 that enhances the recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering through a wide range of programs and activities.
AEP supports participants from pre-college through graduation by facilitating expanded academic preparation, professional readiness and career path exploration in a community oriented learning environment.
In September, that environment exploded in size.
AEP was among the college’s student support services that relocated to the new $44 million Brown-Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center, a move that Brown says has amplified the ability of AEP participants to take advantage of the program in ways its old home in Shelby Center simply didn’t allow.
“AEP gives students an opportunity to create a community within engineering and engage with one another as they engage in other classes,” Brown said. “The Brown-Kopel Engineering Student Achievement Center has given them the space to actually do it. It’s really transformed what they can do as they’re working on teams. It’s given us a platform to engage so many more students. Sometimes it allows us to serve as many as 400 students in any given space.”
But Brown credits the facility’s design as one of its major advantages just as much as its enormous size.
“With all of the clear glass, you can see the students coming by,” she said. “It gives the feeling of open doors and transparency that allows me to stop what I’m doing if need be and take care of a student’s need right in the moment. Again, it’s really just transformed all of the opportunities we want to provide.”
You can listen to an interview with AEP program coordinator Eric Hall below.
