WASHINGTON, D.C., CHICAGO, IL July 31, 2012— Thanks to a generous $100,000 grant made to INROADS by the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), over 100 young scholars will participate the INROADS College Links Career Week in Washington, D.C. from July 30th to August 3rd at the Washington Gas Corporate offices in Springfield, Va and Chicago at the University of Illinois- Chicago Student Center. The ELC is the nation’s premier leadership organization comprised of the most senior African-American corporate executives in Fortune 500 companies.
Scholars participating in the INROADS College Links Career Week events will make connections to the C-Suite as they receive insight and wisdom from executives and industry leaders in STEM and business related careers. Washington Gas and Volkswagen are among participating DC corporate partners who will engage scholars throughout the week of events. Corporate partners in Chicago include BP (British Petroleum Company), Deloitte, The Marketing Store, Rush Medical Center, and Peoples Gas. Scholars will be exposed to career opportunities in banking and finance with a workshop led by INROADS Alumnus Michael Nassy of City First Bank.
INROADS College Links provides development of young scholars in the areas of STEM and business with a focus on readiness for college and INROADS internships upon high school graduation. As the nation’s largest non-profit source of salaried corporate internships and leadership development training for promising students, the INROADS College Links program provides assistance to high school students in the community by preparing and strengthening the pipeline of underserved talent from high school through the higher ranks of corporate America.
“We are excited about the re-launch of pre-college program through the introduction of the College Links program and are thankful to the Executive Leadership Council (ELC) for making this a reality,” shares Forest T. Harper, President and CEO of INROADS. “INROADS and the ELC share a common purpose to ‘Transform Corporate America’ through diverse and inclusive leadership fueled by early career development for underserved youth. The College Links Program meets this objective by starting the executive leadership preparation process at the high school level, thus creating an earlier pipeline for the emerging generation of diverse executive leaders.”
The Career Week events follow a weeklong intense immersion into the “INROADS” way with the INROADS Academy Week held on July 23-27th. The central theme of the week of seminars focused on “Creating Your Personal Brand” and included career exploration activities, personal communication strategies, and sessions with two INROADS Pre-College graduates who are now successful corporate leaders – Harland Abraham, Vice President, Public and Taft-Hartley Funds of Northern Trust and Jeffrey S. Perry, Americas Operational Transaction Services Leader for Transaction Advisory Services at Ernst and Young. Scholars gained insight with a presentation by Ava Youngblood and also had the opportunity to meet and greet INROADS President and CEO Forest Harper.
The College Links program was developed in 1976, to address the lack of technical majors recruited in the Chicago area for the Pre-College Component. The program recruited talented high school students and exposed them to careers in technology, engineering, and computer science. Today, the program re-launches with a continued commitment to year-round programming that includes educational instruction and corporate visits.
About INROADS
The Mission of INROADS is to develop and place talented underserved youth in business and industry and prepare them for corporate and community leadership. Founded in 1970, INROADS, Inc. is the nation's largest non-profit source of salaried corporate internships. INROADS has placed students in over 127,000 paid internships throughout its history, providing students with the skills and competencies necessary to be successful in advanced careers, and graduated over 25,000 Alumni into fulltime professional and managerial positions with over 1,000 Corporate Partners. With over 35 offices throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, INROADS has consistently been named one of “America’s Top 10 Internships” for over 15 years. Currently, INROADS serves nearly 1,800 Interns and 230 Corporate Clients. Top Corporate Partners of INROADS include United Technologies Corporation, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, MetLife, Kaiser Permanente, KPMG International, Lockheed Martin Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, MasterCard International, UPS, General Electric Company, CenturyLink, Inc., Google, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Travelers Companies, Inc., TARGET Corporation, and AT&T Inc. To learn more, visit
http://www.INROADS.org. About The Executive Leadership Council (ELC)
The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) is a national organization comprised of current and former African-American CEOs and senior executives at Fortune 500 and equivalent companies. For more than 25 years, the ELC has worked to build an inclusive business leadership pipeline and to empower African-American corporate leaders to make significant and impactful contributions in the global marketplace and their communities. Our programs develop future business leaders, filling the pipeline from the classroom to the boardroom.
About The Executive Leadership Foundation (ELF)
The ELC’s related charitable organization, the Executive Leadership Foundation (ELF) focuses on improving local communities and helping disadvantaged groups within the broader society. The 501 (c) (3) affiliate was founded in 1989 to promote and implement charitable, educational and leadership development activities. In addition to supporting education programs and providing scholarships to deserving students interested in corporate careers, ELF prepares the next generation of African-American business leaders from classroom to the boardroom.
Posted By: How May I Help You NC
Wednesday, August 1st 2012 at 6:07PM
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