Howard University School of Business
Executive Leadership Honors Program
We’re excited to be part of a program that brings promising business students (who are looking for great career opportunities) together with cable industry companies (who are looking for great employees).
Here’s what’s involved:
Sponsors. Each year, corporate sponsors from the cable industry sign on to invest resources, time and expertise in a special program developed by Howard University’s School of Business. They mentor students, deliver presentations at retreats and workshops, put students to work solving real industry problems and host networking activities. And above all, they meet and work closely with some smart, ambitious and talented business school students.
Students. They’re high achievers who are preparing to make big contributions to their industries. To be accepted into the Executive Leadership Honors Program, incoming freshmen must be National Merit Scholarship finalists, or rank within the top 10 percent of their senior class, academically. Sophomores must be rising stars who have a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher, along with three outstanding letters of recommendation. The program extends across the duration of the students’ undergraduate education.
Goals. The program’s mission is to increase the pool of highly qualified, superbly trained African-American executives through involvement in an active and challenging learning environment. Combining a liberal education with real-world business situations and problem-solving, the program provides students with what they need to become world-class business leaders.
Companies. Recent sponsors include some big names in corporate America, like Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Johnson & Johnson and plenty more. Thanks to collaboration between the Walter Kaitz Foundation and Howard University’s School of Business, some of cable’s best companies have signed on as sponsors including BET Networks, Scripps Networks, SONY Pictures and Time Warner Cable.
Students compete at the March 2nd case competition at Howard University in Washington, D.C. |
Corporate Sponsors and Howard University’s SBEL Students Converge
at January 2010 Winter Retreat in NYC
This past January over 110 students from Howard University’s School of Business Executive Leadership Honors Program attended the cable industry’s Corporate Retreat at the Time and Life Building’s Conference Center in New York, along with the Foundation and its 2009-2010 corporate sponsors: BET Networks, Scripps Networks, Sony Pictures and Time Warner Cable.Designed to acquaint students with each sponsoring company of the program, the event featured four panels, ranging in topics from digital media to career opportunities in the cable industry. The panels highlighted speakers from each sponsoring company and provided the occasion for the students to discuss trends in the cable industry as well as to interact with industry executives. In addition, some of the students attended a special screening of BET’s 106 & Park during the afternoon while others attended a closing reception with industry executives. “The program provides an academic curriculum that facilitates the introduction of the brightest business students to the cable industry’s most successful managers and executives and for that we take great pride,” says Michelle Ray, Senior Director of Programs & Strategic Initiatives at the Walter Kaitz Foundation. Ray added that “in an active and challenging learning environment, these students pursue a customized education that truly prepares them for success in their chosen field.” As part of the program, a case study competition was held and students were divided into teams comprised of 10 to 12 students. Each team was responsible for developing a paper designed to provide strategic advice to the senior management team of a cable operating company or a programming entity of their choice. Industry executives then reviewed the submitted papers and selected the top five teams. The five selected teams then made formal presentations on March 2nd at Howard University’s School of Business in front of a select panel of cable industry executives from Scripps Networks, Sony Electronics and Time Warner Cable. The judges then selected the top three teams who will be announced and awarded monetary scholarships at the school’s annual SBEL Awards Banquet taking place on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, at Howard University. Through this unique program, the Foundation has sought to encourage highly qualified, well-trained, African-American students to build relationships with the cable industry through sessions, networking events and internships – all of which may ultimately lead to employment after graduation. |
