Program Helps Minority Students Succeed In Business
A summer program is helping minority students make their way into the business environment where 90 percent of U.S. managers are currently white. Now in its 17th year of operation, the Leadership Education and Development program, or LEAD, will soon begin teaching high school minority students how to become America's future executives.
Eleven business schools, including the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, will host a four-week summer session for Black, Hispanic and American Indian high school students. The LEAD program at Dartmouth will be held from July 7 through July 31.
During the four-week period, LEAD participants are introduced to college and corporate life, as they analyze case studies, make presentations and visit different corporations and their executives. "The students will be exposed to the fundamentals of management education," says Robert Hansen, associate dean and professor of business administration at Dartmouth College and a board member of LEAD.
The students will learn about entrepreneurship, leadership, financial accounting, managerial economics, marketing, business on the Internet, management communications, and business strategies. All of these principals will then be used to write a business plan. Using information technology, the students will write and present the plan which will reflect the operations of the corporate sponsor. Dartmouth's sponsor is State Street Bank in Boston.
"LEAD shows these top-performing minority students first-hand why business is a superb career choice and then it starts molding them into future business leaders," says LEAD board member William Bensyl.
"Far too few of the most gifted minority undergraduates aspire to executive careers, which is a lost opportunity for corporate America," says Garvey Clarke, the founder and president of LEAD.
Participants attend the program between their junior and senior years. They must have a B or better average in class, leadership ability and a score of at least 1,000 on the Scholastic Assessment Test. About 1,200 students apply for the program.
LEAD has had about 4,000 participants, about 2,500 of whom now work in the corporate world. Many have attended Ivy League schools after completing LEAD, with two-thirds earning grade point averages of 3.0 or higher according to officials of the program.
. The program gives the youngsters a leg up when they do try to figure out what their careers will be, says Clarke. "Students do better when they go to school if they have a goal in mind. Even if that goal changes, LEAD gives them focus."
###
Editors: For more information about the program, contact Robert Hansen at Dartmouth College. His number is 603-646-2801. You may also call Garvey Clarke. His number is 212- 986-5816. Feel free to contact Dick Jones Communications if you need any assistance. Dick Jones Communications helps the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College with its public affairs work and can be reached at 814-867-1963 or at [email protected].
RSS