Helping Underrepresented Students Access Education and Co-ops
Michele Lezama, E’88, industrial engineering, says Northeastern gave her access to a top-notch education and co-ops, including a pivotal experience at IBM, which set the stage for future success. She’s devoted much of her career to helping students from underrepresented communities get the same opportunities.
On a winter weekend morning in 1984, a storm roared up the East Coast and dumped several inches of snow onto New York City. It also set Michele Lezama, E’88, industrial engineering, then a high-school senior from the Bronx, on her career path.
Lezama, who is now president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), was scheduled to attend a nearby college fair. But with snow falling outside, she decided to hunker down and watch TV. Then her mother walked in and handed Lezama her winter coat. “We’re going,” she said.
Upon arriving at the event, Lezama and her mother found only one other person had braved the storm—a Northeastern recruiter. The three settled in for a lengthy discussion about Lezama’s impressive math grades and how that could apply to engineering, her school choice and career aspirations, and her need for financial support.
Impressed by what she learned of the rigorous academics, co-op program, and student life, Lezama decided to apply to Northeastern and was ultimately offered financial support, including a scholarship from NACME, the organization she leads today.
“The co-op program was extremely attractive because you could alternate academic sessions with a job that had a real salary,” Lezama says. “It was a salary beyond the means of my own family who had been working for years.”
She says the financial support gave her access to an education and co-op experiences that set the stage for future success. Lezama also credits student life at Northeastern with helping her achieve her goals. She joined the Black Engineering Student Society (BESS) early in her first year. Initially she saw the group as a way to sharpen her study skills, but it became a greater source of support, and she eventually became president of the organization.
“It was a sense of home and a sense of community with people who focused on learning,” she says.
Her first co-op was at IBM, where she worked supporting production of mainframes. She completed several co-ops during her undergraduate years, and says they primarily taught her what she did not want to do, which she considers time well spent because it helped her focus her engineering path.
“Co-ops allow you to preview a job,” Lezama says. “One of the huge benefits of the co-op program is it gives you the ability to find out what you like and what you don’t, and to find the type of company culture that fits you and your personality.”
After graduation Lezama was hired full-time at IBM and while there she became aware of the fellowship programs offered by the National GEM Consortium for underrepresented individuals. Because of her solid work performance, IBM agreed to be her employer sponsor. As a GEM fellow, Lezama enrolled in a master’s program in industrial engineering at Columbia University and received an MBA at the same time. She attended classes during the academic year and worked summers at IBM as an intern.
“I would never have had access to a company like IBM without the co-op program,” Lezama says. “Not even close.”
Altogether, she spent five years at IBM. She then decided to make a career change to the media industry. She was hired by CBS, which at the time was wooing the then immensely popular talk show host David Letterman to the network. As part of that process, they were overhauling Letterman’s would-be studio with the latest in technology.
“They wanted someone on the team who understood technology and who could also address cost containment,” she says.
The success of the project—Letterman did join CBS—boosted her profile in the industry and she was soon recruited by HBO, where she served as the director of satellite scrambling operations. While thriving in this job, she received a call from NSBE, which was experiencing financial challenges and seeking someone who had both engineering and fiscal management experience.
She served as NSBE’s executive director for five years and then joined the National GEM Consortium, where she was executive director for 11 years. In 2018, she became president and CEO of NACME.
“It’s my calling,” Lezama says of the work she has done on behalf of students since 2000. “When you’re doing something that you love, you would do it even if you didn’t get paid for it.”
Today, NACME provides $5 million in renewable scholarships each year to 1,000 students across the country, many of whom come from circumstances much like Lezama’s. Every four years, NACME completes a comprehensive survey to determine what are the most critical issues factoring into a young person’s education and career decisions.
“Many of the issues from when I was young are still true,” Lezama says. “They change in terms of new technologies, what is considered a competitive career, and the tools that students need to be successful. But access issues remain consistent.”
She can think of dozens of young people she had the pleasure of working with directly, but what truly moves her is when she receives a thank-you call from a parent. “It reminds me of my own mother,” Lezama says. “When I hear from a parent, I think, ‘Yup, I’m doing the right thing.’”