Barnard Onyenucheya

Barnard Onyenucheya.

"UB gave me everything I needed to succeed."

Barnard Onyenucheya, MS '10, BS '07, began giving back to UB while still a graduate engineering student. “I had been awarded a fellowship and I was extremely grateful,” he recalls. “I figured, why wait 10 years? I gave because I had the means to give back immediately, albeit a small amount.”

He didn’t stop there. His first year as a UB Engineering alumnus, he coordinated a group of fellow graduates to establish the Engineering Cooperative Society scholarship, awarded to STEM students exhibiting excellent character, effort and potential.

Each year, Onyenucheya personally reminds his friends to renew their gifts. “The scholarship was created with one goal: to give back. It always has been a part of the fabric of our program to help out students even as we move forward in our careers and lives.”

A propulsion engineer at GE, Onyenucheya remains a UB student, pursuing a PhD in electrical engineering