Sharing profession alternatives and recommendation with the ladies of Bennett Faculty

Bennett Faculty was based in 1873 within the basement of St. Matthews Methodist Episcopal Church in Greensboro, NC. They’re considered one of solely two all-women, Traditionally Black Faculty and Universities (HBCUs) in the USA — and their mission is to organize “girls of coloration via a transformative liberal arts training to steer with objective, integrity, and a robust sense of self-worth.” I encourage you to learn extra about their wealthy “herstory” in honor of Girls’s Historical past Month.

At Cisco, we’ve taken appreciable steps to combat injustice and inequity all over the world. One of the vital highly effective examples of the daring actions we’re taking is our $150 million dedication to protect the legacy and sustainability of HBCUs via Social Justice Motion 8.

Whereas that dedication consists of driving expertise modernization and bettering STEM training at HBCUs, Cisco is actively investing into the way forward for their college students as effectively — and I’m proud to say that these investments continued earlier this month at Bennett Faculty.

We’re constructing a bridge with Bennett Faculty

Bennett Faculty has been a personal, four-year traditionally black liberal arts faculty for ladies since 1926. Over the course of our relationship, we now have labored to ascertain Bennett Faculty as a Networking Academy, supplied scholar recruiting help, provided steerage on funding grants, and helped improve their community safety for distant studying via a Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Know-how (NIST) Evaluation. As well as, Bennett Faculty has requested mentorship, job shadowing, and visitor lectures by Cisco professionals to organize Bennett college students for all times after faculty. These alternatives align with Motion 8 initiatives and can allow Cisco to proceed to help the sustainability and legacy of Bennett Faculty.

Girls of coloration usually face racism and discrimination in educational {and professional} environments. HBCUs like Bennett Faculty provide the benefit of offering a supportive, inclusive, and justice-oriented method to training. Bennett Faculty operationalizes scholar help via particular convocations, lectures, and seminars that comprise their Educational Cultural Enrichment Sequence (ACES) collection, which is designed to boost the cultural and mental improvement of the scholar inhabitants. Cisco’s dedication to delivering scholar success, accelerating younger AA/B expertise, and making a long-lasting impression for generations to come back gives a superb basis for a symbiotic partnership with Bennett Faculty and augments scholar help.

Because the Government Sponsor for Bennett Faculty, I labored with Wesley Carter, CX Sr. Program Supervisor, and Bennett Faculty to create an ACES occasion that delivered an essential message to Bennett’s liberal arts college students:

  You don’t should main within the pc sciences area to be beneficial to a expertise firm like Cisco! 

It’s a strong message, and one which we are able to regularly construct upon to indicate Bennett college students that even entry-level digital and cybersecurity abilities can improve their aggressive edge, it doesn’t matter what they select for his or her profession path. Dr. Santiba Campbell, Director of Educational Particular Initiatives for Bennett Faculty, advised an all-woman panel and concentrate on liberal arts, as a substitute of STEM, as a result of Bennett Faculty is predominately a liberal arts faculty.

An summary of our Girls in Cisco Panel Dialogue in March of 2023 

One of the vital essential features of this occasion was the evidence-based method. It was kicked off by our personal Shaina Tamburr, VP, CX Applications & Compliance, and featured a panel of various, liberal arts-educated, profitable girls from completely different areas inside Cisco — starting from venture administration to gross sales and advertising and marketing. These profitable girls got here collectively to share their distinctive profession tales and life experiences, in addition to welcome Bennett Faculty’s liberal arts college students to have interaction with Cisco. We doubled down on Cisco’s dedication to scholar success by inviting our Rising Expertise Variety Engagement Workforce to create a portal particularly for college students to add their resume and be thought-about for future Cisco alternatives!

The connection between the audio system and college students was palpable — and after sharing their tales, our panelists had an opportunity to reply these insightful questions in entrance of scholars:

• What has been probably the most important barrier in your profession? 
• How have mentors helped you develop as a frontrunner? What was your path to get there? 
• What recommendation would you give your 21-year-old self? 

Because the occasion concluded, the scholars have been supplied with contact data for all of the panelists so they may attain out and ask questions to organize themselves for a profession within the tech business.

This was an unbelievable occasion for Bennett Faculty

The Girls in Cisco occasion was a hit for Bennett Faculty as a result of it supplied college students with beneficial insights into working within the tech business, in addition to a chance to community with profitable liberal arts majors — together with two alumnae from Bennett Faculty!

However most of all, this was an incredible step in strengthening the connection between Bennett Faculty and Cisco:

“I hope each of you’re doing effectively and nonetheless glowing from an incredible expertise Friday at Bennett Faculty! Thanks for the entire exhausting work in planning, organizing and speaking for the Girls in Cisco ACES panel. I stay up for extra alternatives and sponsorships for us to work collectively.”
— Dr. Santiba Campbell, Director of Educational Particular Initiatives, Bennett Faculty

I’m genuinely proud to be a part of an organization that’s dedicated to not solely creating alternative and publicity within the IT area to non-technical college students, but additionally to the strategic restoration, sustainability, and legacy of HBCUs like Bennett Faculty.

Let’s proceed to work collectively to energy an inclusive future for all by figuring out extra methods to remodel our beliefs into motion, particularly as we have a good time Girls’s Historical past Month.

Register now for our upcoming Girls Rock-IT occasion to learn the way
wonderful girls are utilizing expertise to handle local weather change.

 April twenty seventh, 2023

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