New Jersey FULL ACCESS Student Summit Summary
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A FULL ACCESS Student Summit was held Morristown, New Jersey on November 4th – 5th, 2011. The lead sponsors for this Summit were Verizon, Merck, and Lockheed Martin. Other participating employers included AT&T, Cisco, Ernst & Young, the Internal Revenue Service, Microsoft, NBCUniversal, Northrop Grumman, and Walmart. The selection process for this particular Summit was highly competitive with nearly 60 student applicants. Forty-two students representing 32 unique colleges and universities across the United States were selected and in attendance at the Summit. Volunteers with career services experience critiqued resumes and then met with all students to discuss ways in which to make their resumes stronger prior to the Summit. All students took advantage of the one on one resume critiques that were provided during the registration hour.
Prior to the official beginning of the Summit, the COSD/Cisco Employer Community was conducted. This aspect of the Summit was for employers to meet and network with one another about the specific issues they are facing in developing new recruitment strategies or refining existing strategies to achieve Disability Inclusive Diversity. In this meeting, there was an interactive discussion about the Best Practices in Recruiting College Students with Disabilities. The discussion ranged from planning, including the buy-in of various stakeholders in the recruiting process, to the various sourcing channels that are available on college campuses, outside organizations and other helpful ideas. The next Employer Community meeting will be at the April 2012 Summit in San Jose, CA and hosted by Cisco at their headquarters.
The Summit officially began with a luncheon at the beautiful Hyatt Morristown which featured a welcome introduction from Alan Muir and our Keynote Speaker, Victoria Maxwell. Victoria Maxwell is an acclaimed actress and playwright from British Columbia. Victoria shared her story of mental illness and presented her one woman show entitled, “Funny, You Don’t Look Crazy” which is a ‘sister’ show to her hit, “Crazy for Life”. Students later had an opportunity to learn and interact through multiple training sessions provided by Myranda Bertrand, COSD staff member who discussed “Preparation for Your Career Search”, and Crystal Gilreath, COSD staff member who explained “Disclosure and Requesting Accommodations in the Workplace”.
Students were then provided with the unique opportunity to learn about federal hiring. A panel facilitated by Star Smith, Internal Revenue Service, and composed of Sara Mahoney, US Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), and Paula Golladay, Schedule A Analyst and Recruiter provided information on how the federal hiring process works and how federal employers can profit by investing in workers with disabilities.
We then shifted to our dinner program, which was held in the ballroom at the Hyatt Morristown and included introductions by each employer and dining etiquette training by Mary Jean Billingsley from Johnson County Community College in Kansas. Later that evening, students, employers, and staff enjoyed a relaxing and fun portion of the Summit known as the “Walmart Wii Networking Event”. Refreshments, board games, and two Wii game stations were set-up for the enjoyment of everyone.
The second day of the Summit was described as the “most valuable and important” by most students and proved to be beneficial for students and employers alike. Two, one hour small group sessions were offered, and students were paired with employers they had ranked in order of their interest. Each of the eleven employers had up to 6 students in each group and explained more about the more intricate details of their companies or agencies to students. The conversations were informal, informational, and insightful between the students and employers. Students had the chance to ask about some of the thoughts and concerns they had about specific employers, while employers shared their knowledge and tips about the job search and attainment process as a whole.
After these sessions, a brief wrap-up concluded the student’s portion Summit with final thoughts, challenges, and goals detailed by Terry Bankston of Walmart.
After the students were dismissed, an employer debriefing luncheon was conducted at the Hyatt Morristown. For their initial impressions, all employer representatives were pleased with the structure of the Student Summit and most of all, the quality of students. Each employer described memorable encounters with the students and possible recommendations to put selected students into the hiring process for future interviews.
Several suggestions were made for improvement including: having more employer participation in Friday Summit events, the addition of matching students with employers for the Friday dinner, keeping more open communication about student attendees, and opportunities for students to practice virtual/video interviewing.
Brief details about the upcoming COSD FULL ACCESS Student Summit at the Cisco headquarters in San Jose, California in April 2012 were discussed. Many of the employers stated they were committed to attending this next Student Summit.
COSD has employed several methods to stay in touch with these students and employers, including Facebook and Twitter pages. It is our goal that long-term, professional relationships are built between employers, students and higher education institutions as a result of the Summit experience.