The first time Alisha Davis-Kent heard about Next Engineers, GE’s college readiness program focused on increasing the diversity of young people in the engineering field, she felt like someone had “heard my story, understood my story and was creating a solution to help others overcome some of the struggles and problems that I had as a child.”
For Davis-Kent, who now works as a test engineer at GE Aviation’s headquarters in Evendale, Ohio, that feeling was grounded in reality. Growing up in an underserved community on the west side of Louisville, she followed her parents’ advice to study hard and do well in school — “not just for the impact it would have on my life but on the lives of others around me,” she said. But once she started in the industrial engineering program at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, she realized how much she could have benefited from more STEM-related classes in high school — not to mention from the guidance of a mentor or two. Now, through Next Engineers, she sees an opportunity to give students the solid foundation she wishes she’d had.
