AAMI Events

AAMI offers conferences and seminars, mentoring and modeling opportunities, and social engagement and personal development activities to participants. Upcoming events can be viewed on the OMED Calendar. Past AAMI events have included:

  • GO! Men’s Leadership Summit: The one-day Summit with a focus on male students of color will host dynamic session presenters. The Summit facilitates life-changing relationships and networking opportunities by bringing together students, faculty, staff, corporate partners and community leaders from across the GT community and beyond.
  • Barbershop Talks: Come and speak with representatives from campus and corporate partners.  We will be discussing professional opportunities, corporate diversity goals, you will also hear personal stories and glean best practices for success and engaging companies for employment and internships
  • AAMI Golf/Networking Event: AAMI, GT Brother’s ERG and the male GT alum from the Black Mentor Jackets group participate in a golf clinic and networking workshop sponsored by our corporate partners Capital One and hosted by Bobby Jones Golf Club.  Participants attend a Networking workshop hosted by Capital One and receive 2 hours of PGA pro instruction focused on short game and full swing lesson via golf clinic
  • Men of Distinction Seminar: “Exploring Pathways to Success and Social Action,” which featured distinguished faculty and staff Raheem Beyah, John-Paul Clarke, Baratunde Cola, Archie Ervin, Gary May, Keith Oden, Manu Platt, and Damon Williams 
  • Am I (Still) My Brother’s Keeper?: “New Conversation around an Old Paradigm,” which was co-facilitated by alumni Luqman Abdur-Rahman (APS Principal & Educator), The Honorable Andre Dickens (Atlanta City Council), Cedric Stallworth (Georgia Tech), Major General Ronald Johnson (Georgia Tech), and Ryan Stewart (2LiveStews)
  • Real Conversation with Black Women: “Can We Talk across Genders?,” which featured alumnae Kia Benion (Triage Consulting Group), Quirtina Crittenden (Triage Consulting Group), Erikka Mallet (Women in Technology and Women of the Year), and Jade Sims (Georgia Tech)
  • Broadening the African-American Footprint: “Moving Beyond Student to Corporate Leader,” which featured key corporate executives and representatives from AT&T, Georgia Transmission Corporation, General Electric, GTRI, Southwire, Sprint, and many more
  • Tackling the Mountain and the Vision: “Historic Team Building Five-Mile Mountain Climb and Skylift Ride”
  • Fearless Dialogue: Facilitated by Gregory Ellison II (Emory University)
  • Brother to Brother: Collaborative unity session with NPHC fraternity members

In celebration of Black History Month, OMED/AAMI will host its third Academic Empowerment Fair to recognize, support, and enhance black Excellence on Georgia Tech’s campus. The 2020 Academic Empowerment Fair will be held on February 13 in the Georgia Tech Student Center.  

Students will have an opportunity to:

  • Meet and interview with corporate reps between 12-2 p.m. and 3-5 p.m. (chance to win a $350 empowerment monetary grant)
  • Receive one-to-one undergraduate and graduate advisement (earn chances to receive free registration and air travel to NSBE National Convention)
  • Innovation Prototype & Entrepreneurship session and competition (win $500 monetary award) 
  • Meet Georgia Tech faculty of color outside of the classroom – with free dinner  (Special AEF performance and recognition grants will be awarded) 
  • Attend the Resource and Organization Fair between 12 – 2 p.m. (earn give-aways and apply for $500 travel grants to a professional/organization conference of your choice!)
  • Participants will be eligible to receive an Academic Empowerment Grant​

Conferences & Seminars

A major factor in African-American students’ experiences at predominately white institutions are the creation/control of counter-cultural spaces and symbols. Counter-cultural spaces and symbols are photographs, buildings, publications, physical spaces, sculptures, plaques, walls, open displays, and artifacts that depict the presence, norms, beliefs, practices, and social behaviors of a particular group. Solórzano et. al. (2000) found that development of social and academic counter-cultural spaces in response to systemic barriers on and off campus provide autonomy, flexibility, and agency to a group that has been restricted and regulated by counter norms of a dominate culture. 

AAMI has established a vibrant academic environment through conferences and workshops that function as counter-cultural spaces, yet facilitate the rigor, problem-solving, and project team competency necessary to thrive at an institute of technology and in STEM-related careers.

Mentoring & Modeling

Due to the critical nature of mentoring in higher education, the disparities in faculty demographics, and the power dynamics of hierarchical relationships, the one-to-one mentoring model can create places of contestation and injustice for women and persons of color (Bell-Ellison and Dedrick, 2008). There is a growing emphasis throughout the literature on the development of mentoring networks, consortia, and cohorts, as opposed to single mentor-mentee relationships. The network and cohort model provide alternate ways of leveraging limited resources. Underrepresented groups tend to benefit from cooperative multiple-mentor relationships that attend to personal and emotional needs as well as academic needs (McGuire and Roger, 2003; Yun, 2007). However, Agnew et al (2008) warn that if left to a more organic social structure, mentoring networks – while creating stronger communities – can have socially isolating effects for students of color. Therefore, experts advise that mentoring networks be comprised of intentional cohorts and supported at interdepartmental and institutional levels.

AAMI strategically attends to these dynamics through mentoring and modeling initiatives.

Social Engagement

Studies have shown that abstract agendas only mask issues of diversity and inclusion. While our aim is to create an environment of inclusion for all, the integration of African-American males as leaders in an inclusive environment hinges on their ability to sustain their own self-efficacy and excellence of consciousness in engaging others. Consequently, we recognize that the academic and professional development of a person is connected to their social and community development.

AAMI attends to the holistic development of our participants inclusive of social and communal activities, such as community service, self-efficacy evaluation seminars, “fearless dialogue,” teambuilding exercises, competitive gaming, need-base innovation competitions, and collective responses to communal issues.