INROADS INC
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Mission Statement
INROADS’ programs recruit and develop talented, underserved students and prepare them for salaried, high-quality business and industry internships designed to create future corporate and community leaders. INROADS’ underserved students often have limited access or exposure to business and industry and greatly benefit from support in career exploration, mentoring, networking and leadership training. Through INROADS’ blended learning model, program participants receive intensive pre-service and in-service training and support throughout their tenure in the program, including monthly coaching and advising, online training, workshops, and community service. The goal is for interns to secure a permanent offer of employment with an INROADS corporate partner upon graduation. Nationally, INROADS serves approximately 9,000 participants per year. On a local level, services are provided through INROADS’ 11 regional offices across the United States.
About This Cause
Mission, History and Programs 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 Chicago in 1970, INROADS began as the vision of Frank C. Carr, a corporate executive who, inspired by Martin Luther King's powerful vision, became increasingly concerned about the lack of ethnically diverse employees in corporate management. Carr ultimately left his position to begin INROADS, a nonprofit that would prepare talented minority students for positions of leadership in business and the community. Today, INROADS has evolved into an international organization that identifies exceptional yet underrepresented students throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico and coaches and trains them so they can become high-performing contributors in the workplace. INROADS’ underserved students often have limited access or exposure to business and industry and greatly benefit from support in career exploration, mentoring, networking and leadership training. INROADS supports participants throughout their professional life cycles, from pre-college through late career. Core programs are: • College Links: Targeting high school students, this comprehensive academic enrichment, career immersion and awareness program seeks to increase the number of underserved students who graduate and ensure that they are prepared to succeed as future business and community leaders. • College Internship Program: INROADS’ signature service, the College Internship Program focuses on underserved university students who are preparing for career-related responsibilities. As such, this program has two main components: o Candidate Preparation: Designed to prepare students for the professional interview, the candidate preparation component focuses on the skills and tools needed to make the best impression. Participants work with professionals to organize their job searches, prepare effective resumes and cover letters, and participate in mock interviews. o Intern Placement and Leadership Development: Based on the outcome of the candidate preparation sessions, participants transition to the internship component, when they are placed into salaried internships with the goal of a permanent job offer upon graduation. Interns receive ongoing development, training and coaching to foster business and leadership skills. • Mid Career Development: Professional development is provided to alumni, leveraging the resource and networking connections necessary to excel at every stage in the career cycle. Nationally, INROADS serves approximately 9,000 participants per year. On a local level, services are provided through INROADS’ 11 regional offices across the United States. The Issue: Diversity in the Workplace One of the country’s strengths is the diversity of its populace, with men and women of many ethnicities and backgrounds. Still, even with the many initiatives designed to honor and support the nation’s diversity, minorities often lag behind their White counterparts in key areas. In the workplace, while men and women of color and ethnic minorities represent 30% of the nation's population, they still only comprise 11% of executive management teams across the nation. Women often trail behind in the professional arena as well: Women currently account for 47% of the workforce, yet only 14% of chief executive positions in Fortune 500 companies are held by women. To ensure access to management opportunities, there must be a robust pipeline of diverse talent that starts well before college graduates enter the workplace. Development of a diverse talent pipeline needs to reach young people at important academic and career decision points. In other words, to attract a diverse, qualified workforce, students need to be reached at earlier ages, and there must be efforts at the college level to reach underserved, academically ambitious populations that may experience transitional problems while attempting to cross academic and workplace borders. Once in college, youth from underserved populations are first-generation students who come from low-income, minority or immigrant families. They bring a unique set of strengths, including optimism, resourcefulness, self-reliance, and self-confidence. However, these same students face challenges that statistics show make them less likely to be academically prepared; have academic and career guidance; receive financial support from their families; be involved on campus; be engaged in supports that foster connectedness with their schools, teachers and fellow students; and have degree expectations and plans. They often have more financial responsibilities and have to work part-time or full-time while enrolled. With little exposure to role models, many make big decisions without help or guidance. Even after graduation, many first-generation students do not have the life skills and personal capital that middle- to high-income students have — skills that are needed to navigate the challenges of the modern professional workplace. The economic recession and resulting surge in un- and under-employment has only added to the challenges for college graduates from underserved communities. Employment statistics indicate that recent graduates face unemployment of 8.8%, compared with 5.7% in 2007. Underemployment has also risen to 18.3% for recent graduates, compared with 9.9% in 2007 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2013.) Who INROADS Serves INROADS targets students interested in a wide variety of fields and prepares them to gain and maintain employment in a corporate environment. INROADS uses the term “underserved” to refer to those who are most often students of color, come from low-income households, or are first-generation college students. Potential candidates must have cumulative high school and college GPAs of 3.0 or higher and express interest in pursuing a career in a growing and thriving field such as science, business, engineering, accounting, finance, and marketing. Through INROADS’ blended learning model, program participants receive intensive pre-service and in-service training and support throughout their tenure in the program, including monthly coaching and advising, online training, workshops, and community service. Additionally, interns may apply for INROADS academic scholarships, a competitive process designed to recognize, encourage and support outstanding interns who demonstrate leadership and scholarship. The goal is for interns to secure a permanent offer of employment with an INROADS corporate partner upon graduation. The INROADS Philosophy INROADS’ approach is based on the following assumptions: • While youth from underserved communities may face obstacles to obtaining work and thriving in their first jobs, INROADS’ program is based on recognizing and building upon their strengths and is built on the belief that these youth are a desired talent resource. • Many employers, even though they cite talent shortages, often have reservations about young workers’ lack of experience, credentials and an ability to deal with the challenges of the workplace. Employers may not understand the generational differences and may make assumptions about the social know-how and work ethic of young workers. • To be sustainable in the future, businesses’ human resources strategies have to include the recruitment and training of young people. • A strong commitment and effort to help underserved youth develop business and leadership skills will enable workplaces to expand the available talent pipeline and ensure that the workforce continues to be appropriately skilled. For this reason, INROADS acts as a trusted conduit, connecting young adults at the beginning of their career pathways with the professional workplace. INROADS works with diverse college students to help them achieve their full personal, career and leadership potential. The program helps them gain a knowledge of professional workplace expectations and culture; a path for pursuing their careers, and the ability and experience needed to gain employment, retain the job, and advance in the company. INROADS also collaborates with employers to identify, analyze and create high quality internship opportunities, and we educate employers on how to better retain young, diverse workers during the internship and beyond. We increase the employer’s willingness to take a chance on a young intern because they know we will create and provide relevant and effective training and ongoing support for those interns. In turn, employers collaborate with INROADS by providing volunteers and in-kind resources. Impact INROADS’ vision is to have a workforce that mirrors the diversity of the country. To do this, INROADS serves as a broker between the business world and the emerging workforce. As a result, INROADS’ interns not only have a greatly increased chance of receiving a job offer upon graduation, but also the promise of a bright future, a promise that results in better college performance and on-time graduation. Thus, INROADS goes beyond just placing diverse college students in internships: INROADS transforms lives. INROADS’ programs help level the playing field for underserved students and break down barriers to their full participation in the professional workforce. Further, INROADS programs lay the groundwork for future advancement, enabling interns to not just survive in the future, but thrive. INROADS is proud of its scope and accomplishments, which include: • INROADS has nearly 250 corporate clients—many of them Fortune 500 companies; • INROADS has graduated over 26,000 leaders in its history; • INROADS has consistently been named one of “America’s Top 10 Internships” for over 15 years by Vault.com; • INROADS’ success is unparalleled; in 2013, 73% of INROADS interns received an offer of permanent job employment with an INROADS corporate partner. As a result, a common refrain among program alumni is: “I couldn’t have done it without INROADS.”