About CABPES…
The Colorado Association of Black Professional Engineers and Scientists (CABPES) was founded in the late 1970s by a group of African American engineers who shared a desire to increase the minority representation in technical professions.
Its mission is to encourage and assist African American and other underrepresented minority youth in the pursuit and attainment of career choices in engineering and applied science professions.
The organization was incorporated in the state of Colorado in 1980.
About Junior Engineers, Tomorrow’s Scientists (JETS)…
In 1980, CABPES established the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) Chapter No. 3084. The purpose of the JETS Program was to provide middle school, junior high, and high school students exposure to careers in engineering and applied science. Many of the first group of volunteer JETS technical advisors were engineers from AT&T. Some of these advisors have remained active participants since the establishment of the JETS club.
In 1983, as part of the JETS club, a counseling program was started to further assist students in school and in career development
During the fall of 1989, the CABPES Technical Resource Center was established at 4301 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO. It provided a centralized place where students received hands-on training and tutoring through the JETS, MEP, and SAT College Preparation programs.
In 1993, CABPES decided to break away from the national organization of the Junior Engineering Technical Society because of a difference of opinion on how CABPES wanted to organize its JETS program. As a result of this decision, CABPES changed the name of this program from the Junior Engineering Technical Society to Junior Engineers, Tomorrow’s Scientists.
Today’s JETS program has evolved because it is CABPES vision to continually pursue the boundless aspects of engineering! We now offer Fun with Microcontrollers, Construction Management, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Program Management, Automation Engineering, Biomedical Science, Lego Robotics, Electronics, Architecture, Web Design/Programming, as well as Computer-Aided Design/ProE. Each course is a project-oriented, comprehensive, and best of all hands-on learning experience. Courses are regularly updated to meet the current needs and interests of our students as technology changes,
About Math Enrichment Program (MEP)…
In 1982, the Math Enrichment Program (MEP) was created to provide traditional math tutoring, and homework assistance to middle school, junior high school, and senior high school students. CABPES also started a summer math boot camp SMBC) in 2007. The purpose of the boot camp was to help middle school students solidify their knowledge of basic math skills. In 2015, CABPES added student access to IXL, a personalized learning website, to help the students advance their math skills.
About SAT/ACT College Preparatory Program…
In 1986, members of the Hampton Alumni Association started the SAT tutorial program. This program was designed to prepare high school students for taking the SAT College Entrance Examination. In 1988, CABPES offered to share its computer resources and space for this worthwhile endeavor. Since that time the SAT tutorial program has been a vital part of CABPES and has evolved into our current SAT/ACT College Preparatory Program. In addition to preparing students for taking the college entrance examinations, the program helps the students determine college majors, complete college applications, complete scholarship applications and encourages activities that will strengthen the students’ applications.