COLUMBIA, S.C. (courtesy benedict.edu and abccolumbia.com) — Benedict College has become the first HBCU in South Carolina to receive accreditation for its Environmental Engineering program. Clemson University is the only other school in the state to have this accreditation for its Environmental Engineering program.
The college received the honor from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, or ABET.
“ABET accreditation is the recognized seal of approval that validates that our environmental engineering program meets the highest standards and positions our graduates to pursue careers as licensed engineers and representing the BEST of BC!” said Dr. Roslyn Clark Artis, President, and CEO of Benedict College.
The Environmental Engineering program prepares students for careers in water and wastewater treatment, solid waste management, remediation in polluted sites and air quality engineering.
According to Dr. Jessica Furrer, Benedict’s Environmental Engineering program Head and ABET coordinator, this will help Benedict College recruit more students for the program and hopefully lead them to lucrative careers.
“This is absolutely game changing. Our mission in the computer science physics and engineering department is to increase the number of well-qualified minority students in the STEM fields and so this is just one more step. This is why we do what we do everyday at Benedict. This is just one more step in that process to increase those numbers to move more African American students to those good paying jobs and those really rewarding engineering careers,” said Dr. Furrer.
Anthony Stubbs is a junior in the Environmental Engineering program and is excited about the new accreditation.
“Oh it’s going wonderfully, it’s a wonderful experience being able to come here being able to get an accredited degree now in environmental engineering, ” says Stubbs.
Stubbs already has big plans for how he’ll use his education.
“Well first of all I’m from the Bahamas, I’m an international student. I hope to go back home sometime and actually improve our environment. I want to be able to recycle waste, I want to implement waste. I found a lot of ways coming here to improve ways to handle hazardous waste. I want to focus on energy as well,” he said.
“Employers are looking for students from accredited programs because it shows they have the background on skills and knowledge that are needed to be successful in their engineering careers,” said Dr. Furrer.
Stubbs hopes potential students will consider this program. “I hope that everyone else sees this as an opportunity to actually come here and take the environmental engineering and see what it has to offer,” he said.
Benedict College offers several high-demand fields of study in STEM, Cyber Security, Mass Communication, Sport Management, Business Administration, Engineering, Computer Science, Biology, and Education.
