Amidst the stress of midterm season in first year, Sasha Oginni, Sci ’26, had an epiphany. Looking around her linear algebra lecture, she realized no one looked like her.
The only Black woman in the room, Oginni took to Google in search of a community, and found Queen’s National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) chapter. With applications due the following day, Oginni debated which position would allow her to enact the most change. She applied to be president.
As co-presidents of NSBE, Oginni, and Nathalia Rosalle, Sci ’23, want Black students in engineering to know they belong, and there’s nothing they can’t achieve. Neither are afraid to disrupt the status quo.
“I think as a leader, it’s really important to be disruptive,” Oginni said. “If I’m the only Black girl in this engineering class, I don’t care […] If I want to be a leader, or take a role in the Engineering Society, I’m going to apply. In order to break these barriers and have perpetual change that will stay for the following generations, somebody needs to do it.”
This month, Oginni and Rosalle are raising NSBE’s profile on campus. A Tea Room takeover on Feb. 12 saw every drink sold accompanied by a playing card describing a famous Black scientist. All proceeds went to the Black Health Alliance.
NSBE is filling many gaps; it’s a social club, a professional development service, and an advocacy group for Black students. With their unofficial office running out of the Black student room, Beamish-Munro Hall room 331, NSBE is putting down roots.
For Rosalle, true equity and inclusion rests on three things: feeling seen, heard, and valued. Many Black students don’t know who to turn to, and developing connections within the faculty and beyond Queen’s is essential. Every time Oginni or Rosalle see a job posting or opportunity link, they send it to the NSBE Slack channel.
“There’s so many extra things [for Black students]. You may be the first person who’s going to university, or you’re the first engineer, and then you don’t have all those extra connections,” Rosalle said.
At the University of Toronto, the NSBE chapter rivals their enginereing society, Oginni explained. But at Smith Engineering the Black community is still growing.
Smith Engineering’s student body is diversifying, but not the faculty. Oginni and Rosalle hoped to run a mentorship program for upper-year students, but that came to a halt when they realized there weren’t any Black engineering professors to be mentors.
“If you don’t see that representation, then you lack perspective and encouragement that you can. [Seeing Black academics] it’s that tangible, I can achieve this,” Rosalle said.
“You need to see it to believe it,” Oginni added.
Legacy is important at Queen’s, Oginni and Rosalle explained, and they take building NSBE’s history seriously. Planning ahead, they’re raising money for Queen’s students to attend NSBE’s national conference next year.
After her first year, Rosalle ed interviewing for a position within Smith Engineering with all her friends. For them, it went off without a hitch. For her, the interviewer interrupted her during her first response to ask if she played basketball in high school.
“I sat there, and I realized I wasn’t going to get this job. I think that made me so sad,” Rosalle said.
In finding success, Oginni acts with confidence and sidelines fears of discrimination. A natural leader, she considers it a privilege to use her voice to make way for Black students coming to Queen’s.
Oginni’s grandmother raised her on the Japanese concept Ikigai, to live with purpose and fulfillment through pursuing your ions. Leadership and outreach are Oginni’s Ikigai.
“If you’re saying one of your pillars is outreach or advocacy or connection, you need to embody that in everything you do, and not just on a superficial level,” she said.
Despite NSBE’s progress, Oginni and Rosalle maintain Black engineering students lack from the top. They pointed out the faculty has more scaffolding in place to build community for other equity-deserving groups, such as pre-orientation events and a rocket design team for Indigenous students.
Following their Tea Room takeover, the co-presidents noticed students picked up on the club in small but significant ways. Students pronounced the club “nez-be” instead of the usual “n-s-b-e”. There was chatter in the ILC about Mary Jackson, NASA’s first African American female engineer, and David Crosthwait, the inventor of modern HVAC.
By the end of the year, people will know NSBE, the co-presidents said.
“I want [Black students] to know they have a space and the potential to write their own story,” Oginni said. “No one’s story is defined or already written for them, it’s entirely up to them. I think everyone should have the opportunity and the tools to do so.”
Corrections
A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Nathalia Rosalle’s name throughout the story. Incorrect information appeared in the Feb. 16 issue of The Queen’s Journal.
The Journal regrets the error
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