USC Marshall’s second annual FORWARD Summit brought Black, Latinx and other business leaders of color together for in-depth and candid conversations on corporate America, racial representations in entertainment, entrepreneurship and the business of cannabis.
The event, held virtually this year on Feb. 27, was organized by USC Marshall’s Black Graduate Business Leaders and Latino Management & Business Association. Its mission, as in its inaugural year in 2020, was to connect, inspire and elevate a new generation of business leaders to chart paths and break barriers. Appoximately 250 students, faculty, staff, alumni, and other business professionals attended.
Marshall Dean Geoff Garrett welcomed everyone to the event, thanking and congratulating the student leaders who made it possible.
“I think business schools work best when students lead and the administration supports,” he said, “and I think this event is a perfect example of that.”
The Forward Summit, he said, is a good example of how business schools can work as agents of social change. “I know you all came to business school not only because you want to change your own personal lives, but you also want to change the world.”
The Marshall School has stated its priority of ensuring that every graduate has core competence in managing and leading diverse organizations.
In her opening remarks, Interim Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Violina Rindova noted that the MBA Class of 2022 is Marshall’s most accomplished, both academically and professionally, and the most diverse ever, with 44% students of color, 23% from historically underrepresented groups and 11% identifying as LGBTQ.
“A diverse student body improves the educational experience for everyone,” said Rindova who is also Captain Henry W. Simonsen Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship, director of research for the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and professor of management and organization.
“The FORWARD Summit really demonstrates our collective commitment to change, to envision a path forward and the ability to bring together our students as the future business leaders with current business leaders in order to share ideas about how to design a better tomorrow,” Rindova said. “Students are the change agents that will ensure that the future does not look like the past.”
The Motivating Factor
The idea for the FORWARD Summit began more than a year ago with a question, explained Aria Aaron MBA ’21, president of BGBL. “USC sits in South Central Los Angeles, a hardworking neighborhood home to a large population of Black and Latinx people, so what more can USC do to uplift the same community it calls home?”
The FORWARD Summit aims to leverage the resources and clout of USC to bring exposure to Black and Latinx professionals, she said. “We all know the power of representation, how seeing those who look like us in places of power confirms our own belonging, and the FORWARD Summit was born with that in mind.” The Black Lives Matter movement launched last summer only strengthened the idea that events like this are needed, she said.
Over the course of the day there were expert panels including a C-suite roundtable, racial representation in entertainment, entrepreneurship and the business of cannabis.
Read more about Summit participants here
Scholarships Awarded
In the closing ceremony, two $5K scholarships were awarded to rising second-year MBA students who show a commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion at Marshall and beyond: Alganesh Tamyalew and Hoguer Sanchez. The scholarships were made possible by donations from 22 graduate student clubs, VP of Corporate Responsibility at Northrop Grumman Sandra Evers-Manly (USC Price ’81), Bank of America and Boston Private. Members of last year’s FORWARD Summit planning committee judged the scholarship applications.
“This Summit represents hope,” said Libby Blasser, president of the Latino Management & Business Association. “What this experience has proven is that, through focused and collaborative effort across industry perspectives and communal conversations, we can continue to make actionable change.”
