TSU Honors Students Attend Leadership Conference, Leave with Job offers

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Eight outstanding Tennessee State University students recently attended a conference aimed at providing a unique professional experience that included leadership training and recruitment opportunities.

The group from the University’s Honors Program attended the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Leadership Institute Nov. 8-12 in Washington, D.C. During the four-day conference, the students had a chance to meet with some of the nation’s top executives for leadership training and recruitment opportunities, but also career management, life skills and development.

Selected though a competitive process, the students attending included Angelina Berry, mathematics major; Shondalyn Smith, computer science major; Cecily Wiseman, architectural engineering major; Jer’Mykeal McCoy, communications major; Jaime Garcia, business administration major; Mia Black, business administration major; Stephanie Austin, psychology and health sciences double major; and Jessica Lozada, biology major.

According to Dr. D. Lee McGahey, associate director of the Honors Program, the students had the opportunity to meet with representatives from more than 60 companies and government agencies.

“This was incredible,” said McGahey of his inaugural attendance at the institute. “I have never seen anything like it in my life; so many high-powered, educated, wealthy minorities in one location with the sole purpose of pouring back into the next generation of future leaders. This is what family is about to me.”

Six of the students interviewed with top companies, while three received offers of employment.

Berry interview and received an offer from Booz Allen Hamilton; Smith interviewed with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation and Walmart Stores Inc., and received an offer from IBM; and Garcia interviewed with Altria and Walmart, and received a job offer from Walmart Stores Inc. Corporate Headquarters.

Wiseman interviewed with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Woodrow Wilson Institute; McCoy interviewed with Microsoft Corporation; and Black interviewed with Altria, Hershey and Microsoft Corporation.

When asked what her greatest take away was from this year’s institute, Smith said for her the focus was not about just going to every session just to be going through the motions.

“As a returning student scholar, this time was about putting everything into action with my interviews and getting that job that would launch my career, said the Birmingham native who will graduate later this month. “And guess what, it all paid off.  I got the job!”

TSU has a rich history of student and leadership development.  For more than 100 years, the University has forged alliances with many Fortune 500 companies in order to expose students to leadership models, real-world issues, and organizational environments where leadership embodied.

Continuing that legacy of excellence, the university has developed a relationship with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund over the past eight years and experienced tremendous success through the experience.  Founded by Dr. Ann Joyce Payne in 1987, TMCF is to the Nation’s 47 public Historically Black Colleges and Universities what the United Negro College Fund is to the Nation’s private HBCUs.

To help financially support our students to attend next year’s Leadership Institute 2014 or for more information about the Thurgood Marshall College Fund at TSU, please contact Dr. D. Lee McGahey, associate director of the University Honors Program, at 615-963-5803 or dmcgahey01@tnstate.edu.

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