Designed to engage and attract Black students seeking careers in business and technology.
Three years ago, HP joined the HBCU Business Deans Roundtable as a founding member ((Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), an organization that is on a mission to provide a forum for deans of HBCU business schools to address opportunities and challenges associated with enhancing business programs and initiatives.
Over time, collaboration between the two organizations has taken different forms including financial contributions to the HBCUvc’s Student Relief Fund to help students during COVID-19 and connecting HBCU students to HP’s reskilling programs including HP LIFE and BeChangeMaker.
As part of the initiatives launched by HBCUs, there is an annual HBCU Business Challenge, which asks students to propose tangible solutions to a specific problem.
This year will be the fourth edition of the challenge, and it will be held virtually and focus on “Distance Learning,” asking students for creative problem-solving around the challenges posed by the working and academic worlds shifting to a remote and digital environment.
The challenge provides students with access to executive leaders, real-world business knowledge and, ultimately, an onramp into an industry historically difficult for people of color to break into. Furthermore, with one in 10 Americans not being able to find work in a challenging economic environment, this challenge gives students practical experience at a global corporation to help kickstart and grow their careers.
“The HBCU Business Challenge is an integral part of our holistic partnership with the HBCUs and it embodies our commitment to provide talent with access, knowledge and opportunity. At HP, our long-term goal is to reinvent the standard for diversity, inclusion and belonging and this begins with paving the way for more Black talent to pursue careers in the tech industry,” said Lesley Slaton Brown, chief diversity officer at HP. “The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent social movements for racial justice have amplified the glaring inequalities in how our country is serving communities of color. HP’s investment in our relationship with HBCUs dates back several years and stems from our recognition that these disparities are particularly stark in the tech industry.”
In March this year, HP launched a pilot learning program with North Carolina A&T State University, providing HP MultiJet Fusion printing equipment (the company’s most advanced plastics 3D color printing solution) and a commitment for internships and apprenticeships to the university’s College of Engineering and College of Science & Technology. Under the supervision of Geoff Foster, North Carolina A&T adjunct professor and Core Technology Molding Corporation CEO and founder, this pilot collaboration will inform and set the stage for a broader program with other HBCUs in subsequent years.
Government data shows that while about 12 percent of Americans are Black, African Americans make up only about 7 percent of the US high-tech workforce and just 3 percent of the total Silicon Valley workforce. HP’s partnership with HBCUs seeks to dispel the myth of the “pipeline problem” for qualified young Black candidates. Challenge participation numbers show that the talent is there: over the previous three years, almost 300 students across 44 HBCUs worked in teams to develop business plans tackling real-world challenges and of them, more than a dozen participants accepted positions with HP in the Boise, Houston and Rio Rancho offices.
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