Mike Shinn Distinguished Member of the Year (Male)
Carl McGill
Doctoral Candidate in Biomedical Engineering
University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
Carl McGill was two months old when his father earned a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota and took his wife and American-born son back to their native Liberia. Seven years later, young Carl was back as a war refugee facing the cultural challenges of an immigrant in a new land. Education, said his parents, was his ticket to success, and he applied himself in school.
He excelled in math and science — as well as football and basketball — and participated in summer programs designed to introduce minorities to careers in engineering and technology, at Claflin University and South Carolina State University.
“That’s where I decided I wanted to be an engineer,” McGill says. “And at that time, my mother, who had been a banker in Liberia, was working in nursing. From that I became interested in engineering and the medical profession.”
He entered Clemson University’s biosystems engineering program. Outside of the classroom, he was introduced to the NSBE chapter, its academic excellence programs and its tutoring and mentoring programs for pre-college students.
“That kind of community involvement was new for me. It was a chance to give something back, and I enjoyed it,” McGill says.
McGill served on NSBE’s Region II Executive Board from 2005 to 2006, while completing his senior year and filling a co-op position. The next fall, he entered the combined master’s and doctoral program in biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. He earned the master’s degree in 2008 and is on track to earn his doctorate by 2012. He has not, however, stopped his involvement with NSBE. As a member of the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor NSBE chapter, McGill serves as a mentor to local high school students.
Roger Witherspoon is a journalist and author based in New York.