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Student Org Goes Beyond Race to Push for Diversity of All Types in Business World
Christina Grammenos Columbia Daily Spectator
Posted: 10/17/05
As the desire for diverse boardrooms grows, two Columbia students are wasting no time tapping into the growing corporate appetite for diversity.
The newly created Multicultural Business Association, formed by Lillian Okoye, CC '08, and Ana C. Taveras, CC '08, aims to facilitate career placement for students who remain under-represented in the upper levels of the business world.
While the group hopes to attract students of many different ethnicities and nationalities, Taveras and Okoye want to be clear that their club is not purely, as Okoye put it, a "minority business association."
"What's interesting is that after speaking with the Morgan Stanley recruiter, I found that diversity can also mean diversity in terms of what you study. They don't want only economics majors but the diversity of ... English [majors]," said Okoye.
Ideally, they would like MBA to grow and become an umbrella organization for smaller groups that focus on a more specific membership.
One of the main concerns that prompted Okoye and Taveras to create the organization was the feeling that there were great events being offered by Columbia's Center for Career Education but that students had to take the initiative to find out about them.
Citing one example, Taveras spoke about a diversity workshop camp offered by Goldman Sachs that she attended over the summer. Despite hearing about the program through a CCE event, she was surprised to see such a low representation of Columbia students at the camp.
"We want to have direct contact with the Center for Career Education and make it easier for students to find out about these programs," said Taveras.
The association is similarly looking to outside networks such as Sponsors for Educational Opportunity and INROADS, which work with companies and students to promote diversity in the workplace.
"These companies want diversity and they're willing to pay money and to be out there working with students in order to get [it]," said Taveras.
Another central aspect of the club's mission is to introduce students to the broader spectrum of industries that make up the business world. "We've noticed just through our own experiences that we're just thrown in with investment banking. You're either a banker, doctor, or a lawyer ... it's very difficult to choose anything else," Taveras said.
The students are currently planning several events. They hope to invite representatives from the media, nonprofit groups, and retail organizations to talk to students about opportunities within their businesses.
"There are so many different opportunities out there and we really want to help students find something they are passionate about," Taveras said.
The MBA is not yet a recognized club within Columbia University, but Okoye and Taveras said they will apply for recognition later in the semester after they finish selecting board members and organizing events.
After all, the Wall Street hiring season is almost over. And as they threw out deadlines for summer internship, scholarship, and employment applications, their message was clear: there is no time to be lost. |
