This week, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund is hosting its 19th annual Leadership Institute in Washington D.C., bringing together hundreds of undergraduates from historically Black colleges and universities for four days of networking and professional development.
The event begins on Wednesday, Oct. 16 and will culminate in a recruitment fair on Saturday, where students meet with representatives from companies and graduate school programs.
The 401 student leaders attending have been carefully selected from among 2,237 applicants. This year’s cohort is 57 percent female and 43 percent male, representing 44 public HBCUs affiliated with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Students have an average GPA of 3.56 with 47 percent majoring in business and 42 percent majoring in science, technology, engineering and math fields. The group includes 125 first-generation college students.
To be considered for the Leadership Institute, students need to fill out an application, use a Gallup assessment tool, which analyzes their skills and interests, and complete a Skype interview. For accepted applicants, the Leadership Institute follows a series of professional development webinars.
Students come “ready to go out there and literally conquer the world,” said Dr. Harry L. Williams, president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. “When you have an opportunity to engage with one of the students attending our historically Black colleges and universities, I’m telling you, it’s a treat.”
For him, the Leadership Institute is about pairing the “best and brightest of our students” with the “best companies in America.” Williams hopes students will walk out with new skills but also concrete offers for jobs and internships, he said. In past years, he’s heard from students who left the event with three or four new career opportunities.
“This is one place where companies can go and have a concentrated group of students, specifically African-American students, in one place,” Williams said. “To able to get that type of access is very valuable because they know that these students have already been vetted, already gone through a rigorous process.”
