A decade of impact – and counting – for Bowers student computing group

As an electrical and computer engineering (ECE) major fresh on the Cornell campus, Kaelem Bent '27 was eager to find his community. "I had no connections," he said. "Nobody."

Lidya Bekele '28, a computer science major, didn't have much networking experience.

Tim Adeyemi '27 hadn't even planned to attend Cornell in the first place were it not for a chance Zoom call with an undergraduate and future mentor who wanted to share more about Cornell and an impactful computing group he might be interested in.

Like hundreds of Cornellians before them, all three students ultimately found community and mentorship in Underrepresented Minorities in Computing (URMC) - a student-run group based in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science that exists to support, empower, and develop young computing innovators into professional heavyweights and changemakers.

This year marks URMC's 10th anniversary, and its student leaders, members, alumni and faculty mentors celebrated on Saturday, March 14 with a networking kick-off event in the Computing and Information Science Building followed by a dinner, panels and performances in G10 Biotechnology.

"This organization has created a space where students can find mentorship, encouragement, opportunities and a sense of belonging - often at the moments when it matters most," said Sorin Lerner, dean of Cornell Bowers, to the roughly 135 in attendance at the celebratory dinner. "You lift one another up. You create opportunities. You make this college stronger."

Read the full story on the Cornell Bowers website.