Gabrielle Rodgers, a freshman student from Clinton, Md., spent her first moments at North Carolina A&T State University in the Helping Orient Minorities for Engineering (HOME) bridge program.

HOME is a summer program facilitated through the College of Engineering that connects high achieving incoming freshmen with corporate sponsors. During the program the students take one course in either pre-calculus or calculus and attend various professional development workshops.

“The program consists of several different corporate sponsors that sponsor incoming engineering freshman to come down for the summer,” said Ava Dickens, co-director of the HOME program. “These (students) are usually the top ten percent performers,” she said.

Rodgers, an industrial and systems engineering major, is now a 4.0 student who serves in multiple academic and student life organizations across campus. She was sponsored by Toyota and will intern with the company in Georgetown, Ky., this summer.

“I’m pretty anxious because I’ve never had a job, so going from not having a job to having an internship is pretty big,” Rodgers admitted.

Last summer, eight companies sponsored more than 15 students in the HOME program. Students are matched with sponsors according to the company’s criteria which can include major, grade point average and SAT scores.

As HOME moves into its 10th year at North Carolina A&T, the program has seen a trend of successfully engaging students with potential employers.

At the 2014 Black Engineers of the Year (BEYA) conference, held Feb. 6-8, in Washington, D.C., awards were presented to two graduating seniors, Destenie Nock and Joi Carter and two N.C. A&T alumni, Amani Foster ‘11 and Paige Lewter ‘11. Carter, Foster and Lewter were all members of the HOME program.

For more information on the HOME program contact Ava Dickens at (336) 334-7540 or avaw@ncat.edu.

By Courtney J. Jackson