Today’s college students want to go to schools and work for companies that align with their values, including an emphasis on diversity, according to a panel discussion this Monday on the topic of “Student Values: What’s Driving Our Future Talent?” as well as interviews with the panelists.
The panel was part of the AACSB Societal Impact Conference, a two-day gathering in New York hosted by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a non-profit that is one of the major accreditors of business schools. The conference’s theme this year is “Leaders Accelerating Change.”
According to Bill Imada, chief connectivity officer of the IW Group, a multicultural marketing agency, and moderator of the panel, the students that he’s meeting are seeking authenticity.
“They come in saying that they want a company that is definitive about their purpose, knows who they are, and not only talks about it, but shows it,” he said. “They want to see it, they want to feel it, they even want to taste it.”
From what Imada has seen, diversity is key to this.
“I think diversity is something that this generation has really championed,” he said. “They want to see it in all forms, not just in lived experiences, not just on racial and ethnic diversity, but also other forms of diversity as well. Inclusiveness around people with disabilities, the LGBTQI community, diversity of being able to express yourselves in a safe place, with a little empathy. But going beyond empathy and doing something about it. If the company does nothing about it, I think that that’s a problem for them.”
When asked to discuss his college experience, panelist Rohan Nipunge, a student at the University of Colorado, Denver, said that the diversity of the student body was a significant positive factor. 
Bill Imada
