Tuesday, Oct 25, 2016
by Lauren Kidd Ferguson
The students in Rider University’s Multicultural Student Leadership Institute (MSLI) may have only recently started college life, but their horizons have already opened to career possibilities.
About 25 freshmen from the University’s MSLI program — designed to assist freshmen and transfer students of diverse backgrounds transition into college — had the opportunity to network with top executives from Aramark, a Fortune 200 global leader with 270,000 employees worldwide.
“It was an amazing experience. It was an opportunity that most young people don’t get afforded and it allowed us to get an insight on Aramark as a whole,” says Sheldon Steele, a Rider freshman from Clearwater, Fla., who is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre.
Dr. Pamela Pruitt, Rider’s director of multicultural affairs, arranged for Steele and his classmates to visit the company’s global headquarters on Market Street in Philadelphia. The students met with executives on the 31st floor, the top floor of the building.
“We walk out of the elevator and all you can see is a panoramic view of Philadelphia, which for students who may never have been anywhere near that kind of environment, it was a wow factor,” Pruitt says.
The students who make up the MSLI program come from diverse backgrounds. “We cast a broad net on that,” Pruitt says. “It is more than just ethnicity or gender. It goes into social class, social economics, sexual identity, gender identity and disabilities.”
Aramark provides the food services to Rider, so students see employees serving meals and behind registers. But Pruitt had the idea to show them that there are further career possibilities within the company, and she wanted to introduce them to a diverse group of employees holding high up positions.
Before the executives spoke to students, Pruitt says she told them, “I want you to open up your ears and open up your eyes and horizons to what could be for you… They were all listening to what these executives had to say.”
Aramark’s director of business development, Wayne Barnett, helped Pruitt organize the event. He says he was impressed by the students. “These students were sitting up in their seats and just focused and engaged. That was pretty phenomenal.”
Besides hearing executives speak about their roles at the company, the students also heard from past students who have been through Aramark’s internship programs. And after the speeches ended, they spent time networking with employees.
Victoria Pasquale, Aramark’s regional vice president for the northeast region, was one of the executives who spent time with the students. She said the networking aspect of the program was key.
“I thought it was not only a great opportunity to onboard new students to school, but also for them to learn from day one the importance of their networks and building relationships outside of school,” she says.
Barnett, of Aramark, summed up the importance of the day this way: “The goal during an event like this, is that the students see women, African Americans, and a representation of themselves in the diversity within our corporate environment, and they can think, ‘Yes, I can see myself in that position. I can become an executive, they are just regular people like me.’”