Southern University has signed onto a mentoring program with aerospace giant Boeing that will get students involved in work with NASA on the program that will send astronauts into space.

For Southern, it's a chance to get students job experience and exposure.

"We're looking at focusing more on the aerospace industry and getting our students prepared to work there," said Samuel Washington, director of the office of governmental contracting services.

While Southern does not have a specific aerospace engineering degree track, the university is looking to develop a focus on it within the engineering college, Washington said.

The18-month "mentor-protg" agreement will involve work on NASAs Space Launch System program. The SLS is the worlds most powerful rocket, and is capable of launching missions "to the moon, Mars and beyond," according to a press release.

There are already a number of Southern engineering alumni working with Boeing and NASA at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

Cedric Cole is one of four alumni currently working on the SLS. He believes the mentorship program is a great opportunity for students to work on anything of any magnitude at NASA.

"Its the exposure that theyll get that will set them up for the rest of their career," he said. "The amount of intense engineering that goes on here, itll set you up to work in almost any industry."

Cole and his colleagues are electrical and avionics engineers who work on wiring harnesses, programming and troubleshooting the rockets.

"The fact that youre using 3-D and 2-D modeling software and then there's the physical aspect of it where you get to physically touch the wiring harnesses and the connectors and being able to have the hands-on experience will set anybody up in engineering.

Dr. Washington said the mentorship program is an opportunity to further the progress of Black people in aerospace engineering.

In 2017, NASA increased its hiring of Black engineers by 12 percent, according to that year's Federal Viewpoint Survey. The aerospace engineering industry, especially at NASA has had a steady increase in diversity over the last 20 years.

Boeing has enjoyed a productive relationship with Southern University that will only be enhanced by this NASA Mentor-Protg agreement, said John Shannon, Boeing SLS vice president and program manager, in a press release. The Mentor-Protg program allows Boeing to promote the growth of small suppliers and strengthen the NASA industrial base.

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Southern signs mentorship agreement with Boeing, NASA for work on moon, Mars rockets - The Advocate