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| Bill Wells, NBMBAA National Chairman |
The National Black MBA association, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is gearing up for its annual conference, which will be held Sept. 21–25 in Los Angeles. The organization promises to provide the tens of thousands who attend with a myriad of career enrichment tools, as well as real job opportunities.
“Our primary focus and mission are to provide education opportunities and economic empowerment to African Americans,” said Bill Wells, the organization’s national chairman. “So, essentially we focus on two things: educational development and growing intellectual wealth in the African American community, and then providing access to career opportunities, which obviously drives economic development, so that’s our niche.”
The NBMBAA conference is a business conference that will offer a leadership institute, an entrepreneurial institute, which are both daylong programs, leadership development and a career expo.
“We’ll have anywhere from 400 or so major corporations that are hiring. We’re expecting 2,000–4,000 jobs to be offered during those two days,” Wells said. “We’ll also have a town hall meeting and a corporate partner awards luncheon. There [will be] a host of activities geared toward bringing major corporations who have opportunities together with people who are seeking opportunities.
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| Brenda Gail Holden, VP of administration, L.A. chapter (right) |
With education being one of the conerstones of the NBMBAA conference and a major part of the organization’s mission, there’s also a component that includes youth as leaders of the future:
“Education is very important to us, alongside career development,” says Brenda Gail Holden, VP of administration for the Los Angeles chapter. We take 9th through 12th grade students and develop them till they graduate, making sure they become leaders. We walk them through the process, mentoring them to make sure they get to college.”
Wells added: “Our leaders of tomorrow program isn’t designed for A and B students, it’s for C and B-minus students. We purposely went after those kids that are ‘at promise,’ not at risk. Don’t use that language, they just need an opportunity. It exists within 28 or our 44 chapters across the country. We can’t save them all, but we can touch the lives of some. Many are going on to college because we give them scholarships, hundreds of thousands of scholarships are awarded during the conference, and all we expect of them is, as they get to the next level, they reach back and pull another one with them. We’ve got to engage the young folks in the fight.”
A concert and a major fundraising event will conclude this year’s NBMBAA conference. The fundraiser will raise money to help those in need to fuel their educational pursuits. –gerald radford
For more information, visit nbmbaa.org.
