Boston FULL ACCESS Student Summit Summary
Boston FULL ACCESS Student Summit Summary
A FULL ACCESS Student Summit was held in Boston, Massachusetts November 5th and 6th, 2010. This Summit was generously sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and co-sponsored by Lockheed Martin and Merck. Other participating employers included AT&T, Bank of America, Cisco Systems, the Internal Revenue Service, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Proctor and Gamble (P&G) and Walmart. Forty-four students representing 24 unique colleges and universities across the United States were in attendance at the Summit. All students had their resumes reviewed prior to the Summit and virtually all took advantage of the one on one resume critiques with professionals that were offered during the registration hour.
The Summit officially began with a luncheon which featured our Keynote Speaker, Victoria Maxwell. Victoria is an acclaimed actress and playwright from British Columbia who 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 hear training sessions on disclosure skills, requesting accommodations, career search preparation and skills, and resources available to them such as Career Gateway. An additional guest speaker, Henry Winkelman the Development Coordinator for Clarks Companies N.A., provided a brief presentation on “Keys to Recovery: Education and Successful Work Experience”. Our dinner program included a dining etiquette training by Mary Jean Billingsley from Kansas City. Students, employers, and staff then 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 employer alike. Two, one hour small group sessions were offered, and students were paired with employers they had ranked in order of their interest. Employers had up to 6 students in each group. The conversations were informal, informational, and insightful with the goals being attained; students came away with more than they knew about company interests, procedures, and trends in hiring individuals with disabilities and employers learned about students’ goals, apprehensions, interests, and skills in their job search. After these sessions, a brief wrap-up concluded the Summit.
COSD has employed several methods to stay in touch with these students and employers, including Facebook and Twitter pages. Additionally, we are debuting our COSD YouTube channel, which features testimonial interviews from students, employers, and volunteers at the Summits. 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.