University at Buffalo School of Management

Spring 2021 Buffalo Business 3 Three MBAs accepted into global fellowship Two current MBA students and one alumna from the School of Management were accepted to the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars Global Fellowship program for their venture, Real Talk, a platform that brings people from all backgrounds together for open discussion about import- ant issues. Janelle Fore, BS/MBA '21; Malkijah Griffiths, BS '19, MPH/MBA '22 and Western New York Prosperity Fellow; and Sonya Tareke, BS '17, MBA '20, received resources, support and mentorship to help them advance their startup ideas over an eight-week program in the fall. Each fellow also received $5,000 in grant funding to support their time working on advancing their startup. Embracing diversity in the workplace The school's Career Resource Center and the Diversity and Inclusion Office co-hosted a panel in October via Zoom where employers heard from students about their expectations for diversity in the workplace. Paul Tesluk, dean of the School of Management, kicked off the session by sharing a recent teaching experience on the topic and how meaningful it was to his students, all of whom are working professionals. "One of my key takeaways was that we need to build more opport- unities to be able to listen, particularly from the student point of view, about the importance of diversity and inclusion," he said. Next, Mary Ann Rogers, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion, facilitated the discussion, which drew more than 70 guests, from hiring managers to HR staffers to CEOs. Students Alyssa Brouillet, MS '21; Kelechi Chillis-Ihenko, MBA '21; and Janelle Fore, BS/MBA '21, shared their candid perspectives on tough questions like how employers can make employees feel more welcome and included, and whether there are patterns of employer behavior that they find to be offensive. Employers also submitted questions for the panelists through a chat feature, and the event provided a safe space for meaning- ful discourse. You can view the entire event online at bit.ly/ubdiversitypanel. In a 2020 Glassdoor survey of job seekers and employees: Said a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. 75 % Would not apply to a job at a company where there is a lack of diversity among its workforce. 32 % Said their employer should do more to increase the diversity of its workforce. 63 % Fore Griffiths Tareke Real Talk is one of only 40 student start- ups from across the U.S. and Ireland selected for the fall LaunchPad Fellowship program. The fellowship was focused on social impact student startups—those with a posi- tive societal outcome, beyond financial success—and featured LaunchPad coach- ing sessions and weekly entrepreneurial workshops. In addition, students received mentoring from Blackstone campus ambas- sadors and Techstars entrepreneurs during a "LaunchPad Mentor Week" and talked with social impact entrepreneurs from such orga- nizations as TalkingPoints, All Star Code, River Health, Cloztalk and Imerman Angels. "The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars global network allows us to leverage resources we wouldn't otherwise have access to," says Hadar Borden, director of UB's Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars. "It's a great way to support student ventures beyond our own campus programming."

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