7th Annual HBCU Career Development Marketplace Addresses the State of the HBCU and Aims to Position HBCU Graduates as Tomorrow’s Leaders in Corporate America
Columbia, MD (PRWEB) September 16, 2013 -- The HBCU Career Development Marketplace, a national conference which is designed to inform and educate top undergraduate and graduate students of Historically Black Colleges and Universities on developing careers in their fields of study, is gearing up for its annual event taking place on November 6 – 8, 2013 at the National Housing Center in Washington, DC.
The HBCU Career Development Marketplace has vastly grown in the course of one year. This year alone, the marketplace has officially received its non-profit accreditation and simultaneously became incorporated. These are not the only strides that the HBCU Career Development Marketplace has made, the event is taking a firm stance and calling on former HBCU alumni and future, past, and present attendees to give back to the community that helped them build their career foundation.
Students are vetted through their school’s career directors and they must have at least a 3.2 GPA to be eligible to attend. This year 16 HBCUs will attend the HBCU Career Development Marketplace, with an estimated 500 students. The conference is comprised of Town Hall Sessions, where students have the opportunity to speak face-to-face with experienced HBCU alumni from various professions, providing informative career-specific advice. The Town Hall speakers come from an array of industries such as business, education, medical, law, engineering, law enforcement, accounting, visual and performing arts, and various U.S. government agencies and branches of the U.S. military. Then the students attend the Career Marketplace, where they have access to representatives from corporations, organizations and government agencies seeking to hire talented students, which gives them the opportunity to practice marketing themselves to potential employers with the goal of making connections that could lead to the beginning of their career.
In the 7 years the event has taken place, the HBCU Career Development Marketplace has hosted students from HBCUs around the United States. Undergraduate students and staff come from as far as Louisiana and Mississippi to attend two days of invaluable education, engagement and inspiration. Shane’s hope for the conference is that he is able to help and inspire more students, and that one day all HBCUs in the nation will be represented at the annual event. For now he is content to impact the lives of the students prepping for this year’s upcoming event.
“Now more than ever it is imperative that we give back to the HBCU community,” said Tariq Shane, founder of the HBCU Career Development Marketplace. “I created this event as a launch pad for these students to network, and that is still the focal point; however, it is also about recognizing the impact of giving back.” The conference is free to the HBCU students selected to attend and is financed solely by donations, sponsors, and exhibitor fees. For more information on this conference and how you can contribute, please go to http://www.hbcucareermarket.com.
Bill Edwards, American Small Business Alliance, http://www.asballiance.com, +1 301-596-6031, [email protected]
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