One morning in the fall of 1999, two students sat and shared breakfast together. Brandon Jackson was a first-time freshman and a single father. Bummed out that he had just bombed his finals, he sat down next to the only other black student in the Dining Commons, Kory Martin.

“I didn’t really want to sit next him because he was reading the Bible and I didn’t want to have to talk about that,” Jackson said. “But it turned out to be a very rewarding conversation.”

Jackson entered Sacramento State as an “unmotivated” business student in 1999, and was failing by the end of the first semester. Finding out Martin was a computer science major changed Jackson’s life.

“I didn’t know I could be a career, computer scientist,” Jackson said.

Just to find out African-Americans were doing computer science was amazing, Jackson said. Martin introduced Jackson to key people, told him about the Minority Engineering Program and set him up with an academic adviser. During his five years in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Jackson only had one black professor.

“Even though there weren’t students that looked like me in my classes, at least I had this program that I could go to. We’d all be in (the Minority Engineering Program) study hall, in one place, struggling together to get work done,” Jackson said.

“The program prepared me, helped me stay focused. That program was vital in my success.”

The Minority Engineering Program provides a large, 24-hour study center and computer lab on campus and helps in the coordination of retention services for the College of Engineering and Computer Science. They also offer scholarships, job referrals and academic advising.

Jackson graduated from Sac State last spring with a degree in computer science. He now works for Agilent Technologies as software engineer in Santa Clara. Jackson worked for Agilent in Roseville since 2001 through an internship program that allows students to intern only in the summer and winter and focus on school during the fall and spring semesters, Jackson said.

Jackson was honored at the College of Engineering and Computer Science commencement ceremony with the inaugural President’s Award. The award recipient was selected from seven students who received the Dean’s Award in May.

“You’re looking at a man who has tapped into all the resources that Sac State has to offer. Whether it’s the Minority Engineering Program or working with Safe Rides or being the No. 1 basketball fan. All the people I met have shaped me,” Jackson said. “You have to take advantage of all the opportunities out there.”

Jackson’s internship in college and the Minority Engineering Program helped prepare him for his entrance into the workforce more than just academically.

“On my team of 200 people, there are three Indians, three Asians and I’m the only black man,” Jackson said. “Especially in computer engineering, I’m used to it.

“They prepared me for that, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to accept it. That’s why I was such a leader in these organizations. They recognized the scarcity of minorities in engineering,” Jackson said.

All seven of the colleges on campus have a majority of white students compared to other minorities. Not surprising, considering 44 percent of the student body is white.

Marion O’Leary, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, said that his college’s diversity has not changed much in his nine years as the dean.

O’Leary said the diversity of the natural science and mathematics college is very much like the diversity of the campus as a whole.

“However, the diversity of the faculty does not reflect the student body very well though,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary spent the majority of his career at the Univer-sity of Wis-consin at Madison and the University of Nebraska where the percent of minority students was always under 10.

“When I was looking for some place else to go, I was looking for more diversity. In that aspect, Sac State was extremely attractive to me as a place where all ethnicities can succeed,” O’Leary said.O’Leary said that the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics worries about whether students are able to succeed and have special retention programs in place to help students graduate. Associated Students Inc. President Angel Barajas was the director for the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies on the ASI Board from 2003-04.

Barajas, a government major, said that directors are required to hold four office hours a month to be set up with the dean at their specific college.

“(They’re there for) whatever the students need: internships, scholarships, course schedules, more information regarding a specific major or a referral to a major adviser,” Barajas said.

Each college director is supposed to serve as the president of a student organization council within each college, Barajas said.

However, the only college that follows this guideline is the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Barajas said.

“Realistically, the directors can’t keep in touch with all 2,000 students in each college,” Barajas said.

Most of the directors meet with presidents of clubs and organizations in the colleges to distribute information.

Senior Fantasia Stensland, a construction management major, is one of a handful of women enrolled in the major and is the co-representative for the Society of Women Engineers.

The Engineering Joint council itself contains representatives from several ethnically diverse student organizations including the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the National Society of Black Engineers and the Chicano Latino Association of Computer Scientists and Engineers.

The computer science major has more females and more diversity than other majors, Stensland said, and engineering is picking up more diversity.

“I know the (construction management) department is trying to increase diversity both ethnically and sexually, by reaching out to high school students to inform them of the major, but the industry is so dominated itself with white males that it’s hard to break into,” Stensland said.

Jackson said that the best way to succeed, for minorities especially, is to join the major organizations that are there for students.

“You can socialize and study with someone that has same struggles as you,” Jackson said.

Elizabeth Wilson can be reached at [email protected]