https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/columbia-hbcu-fellowship/

Columbia University offers a prestigious fellowship to graduates of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Discover the benefits of this unique program from Dr. Jason Wingard.

Jason Wingard, Ph.D., is a leading academic in the areas of leadership development, professional learning, and the future of work. He currently serves as a professor and dean of the School of Professional Studies at Columbia University and holds a BA in sociology from Stanford University, an MA in education from Emory University, an Ed.M. in technology in education from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in education, culture, and society from the University of Pennsylvania.

As has often been cited, there are currently only four African American CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies; there have only been 16 since 1999. Yet, companies with diverse teams perform better, as evidenced by research from McKinsey: Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.

Statistics such as these were at the forefront of my mind when I came to the Columbia University School of Professional Studies, a school that unlike many other more traditional institutions has a distinct “future of work” mindset. The future of work is not just about how technological advances will transform the workplace — it is about a new corporate culture that fosters diversity, inclusivity, and representation to produce better results.

But, we often hear from corporations that they have difficulty finding qualified African Americans to work at their companies. The reality is that, while there is an abundance of students who would be ideal candidates for such positions, many companies do not know where to find them, or how to adjust their cultures to be responsive to the needs of a diverse population. I knew that Columbia could be a leader in bridging that gap. To do that, we needed to look where talent already is: HBCUs were an obvious pool.

According to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, HBCUs produce:

To succeed in those careers, though, students need to pursue graduate-level education — both in terms of academic capabilities and in networking to advance in their careers.

The Columbia HBCU Fellowship, now in its third cohort of students, had the goal from the start to build a pool of highly qualified black students for top companies — and to give those students the resources they needed to succeed.

Over the past several years, we have created a direct pipeline of motivated students for our corporate partners, and introduced programming that fosters long-lasting relationships between the two parties.

Here are some of the fundamental components of the program:

• Students from a range of HBCUs can apply to receive a fully funded master’s degree in one of several market-driven programs.
• Students work as interns at one of our corporate partners — leading organizations such as McKinsey, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and the American Red Cross — and are paired with an industry mentor for the duration of the program.
• The students receive free housing, one-on-one career coaching, internship assistance, resume critiques, and mock interviews; they also complete community service, which helps amplify the program’s effects to local underserved populations.

At every step, the students are supported, connections are made, and barriers are removed — key considerations for corporations who would like to utilize HBCUs to augment their diversity and inclusion efforts.

To illustrate the importance of these fellowships, I will offer a success story from one of our 2019 HBCU fellows, Shaddae Findley. Shaddae graduated from Prairie View A&M University in 2018 and worked for a while as an auditor with KPMG. She knew she wanted to pursue higher education to advance in her career and was recommended to the Columbia HBCU program, where she chose to work toward an MS in enterprise risk management.

While here studying at Columbia, Shaddae was connected through her advisor to a summer internship with ALS Group, a leading risk management firm that partners with Columbia’s enterprise risk management master’s degree program. Even before starting that internship, Shaddae authored a report on the top risks of 2020 for the company and was lauded as a “bright, enthusiastic mind” by the CEO.