Two not-profit organizations with roots that stretch back to the U.S. civil rights movement have announced a partnership to enhance the professional skills and career opportunities of the new generation of minority engineers.

INROADS and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) have joined forces this spring in a two-year agreement, a memorandum of understanding (MOU), that equips members of both organizations with resources to advance in their workplaces, attain leadership positions and make a positive impact on their communities.

“As a long-time admirer of the work of INROADS, I’m very pleased that this partnership is becoming a reality,” says Jocelyn Jackson, national chair of NSBE and a Ph.D. student in engineering education research at the University of Michigan.

“I can’t imagine a better organization to join with our other stakeholders in moving us toward our ‘10K Goal.’”

NSBE’s main strategic goal is to lead the U.S. to graduate 10,000 new black engineers annually by 2025.

“At a time when the demand for talented black engineers is at an all-time high, we need innovative collaboration such as that of NSBE and INROADS,” says Forest Harper, president and CEO of INROADS.

“We’re honored and eager to partner with NSBE to ensure immediate and sustainable career pathways for the nation’s best leaders.”

NSBE was founded in 1975 by six African-American engineering undergraduates and their faculty adviser at Purdue University, to address the high attrition rate of black engineering students across the United States. Today, with nearly 25,000 members and more than 600 chapters in the U.S. and abroad, NSBE, an organization led by college and university students, continues its work to increase the number and representation of black engineers.

INROADS, perhaps best known for its internship program that places talented minority youth in business and industry, was founded in 1971 to prepare young people for corporate and community leadership.

The agreement between the two influential groups will create a national partnership focused on data-sharing and data-mapping, alignment of the two organizations’ programs, and joint engagement with the organizations’ sponsors and supporters.

Among the joint initiatives on the programmatic front, NSBE will promote INROADS’ Leadership Development Academy to the Society’s collegiate members, and INROADS’ internship program and College Link to the adult advisers of NSBE Jr. chapters. NSBE Professionals members will benefit from the two organizations’ joint recruitment events for mid-level professionals.

“The mission of INROADS and the mission of NSBE came from the same passion. Our founders envisioned a world made better by equal opportunity, and maximized potential for young people of all races and ethnicities. Today the world is more interconnected than our founders imagined, and diversity and inclusion (D&I) matter more than ever,” says Karl W. Reid, Ed.D., NSBE executive director.

“By working together, NSBE and INROADS will be able to leverage our four decades of work in diversity to create an even stronger force for positive change.”