Smeal Students To Host 10th Anniversary START Diversity Conference
The Smeal College of Business START Conference will celebrate its 10th anniversary this month with slate of speakers from leading corporations discussing business initiatives in diversity.
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (March 23, 2009) – The Smeal College of Business START Conference will celebrate its 10th anniversary this month with slate of speakers from leading corporations discussing business initiatives in diversity.
This year's conference will begin at noon on March 31 at The Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's University Park campus.
Guest speakers from Boeing, Ernst & Young, and Kohl's will join faculty and administrators in diversity from Penn State and Smeal to share their insights and experiences in diversity issues. They will discuss ways to raise awareness in the corporate world and increase respect for individuals in the workplace.
Keynote speaker Wilson Friend, section director in the greater Richmond, Va., area for Philip Morris USA, will open the conference with a discussion of some of the diversity initiatives he is involved with at Philip Morris.
Following Friend, the three winners of the conference’s annual student presentation competition will deliver their winning presentations on diversity. The students were chosen by the START Conference organizing committee after submitting an abstract and presenting before the committee. This year's student presenters are Fernando Javier Barreto, Daniel Burnside, and Kenneth Harrison Coleman.
After the student presentations, Penn State and industry guests will address additional diversity issues in concurrent sessions. Topics include dealing with generational and racial differences in the workplace and cultivating a culture of inclusiveness.
The conference will also give students the opportunity to network with corporate representatives, explore career paths, and learn about the corporate climates of participating companies.
The first START (Striving Toward Awareness and Respect for Tomorrow) Conference was established in 1999 by a group of Smeal students who recognized the need for open dialogue with professional and corporate leaders in order to create a productive and respectful work environment. Since its inception, the START Conference has grown to become an annual Smeal tradition, attracting partnerships with some of today's leading companies.
Boeing, Ernst & Young, Kohl's, Philip Morris USA, and Shell are sponsors of this year's conference.
All Penn State students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend. The complete conference agenda and registration information are available at www.smeal.psu.edu/startconference.
