IU student gives voice to diversity during break

Freshman Christopher Bailey didn’t get much of a spring break tan.

Instead of vacationing like many other students, Bailey spent part of his break in Atlanta attending and speaking at this year’s 10th annual Linkage Summit on Leading Diversity conference from March 16 to 18.

Bailey said the annual conference usually centers on various workshops housing corporate managers from various companies as they strive to improve diversity at their establishments.

This year, however, was different.

As members of the National Society of High School Scholars, he and several other students from across the country were invited to participate in the conference, sharing opinions about what diversity meant to them to some of the nation’s top companies in several Q&A workshop forums.

The students in attendance represented all future youth leaders in the 16- to 26-year-old age bracket called the “Millennials.”

The companies attending the conference wanted to know what Millennials felt upon entering the workforce and what they had to offer to GenX members and Baby Boomers as diverse members of society.

“The workshop that I participated in was quite full,” Bailey said. “That alone had a huge effect on me. These companies wanted to hear what the voice of America’s youth had to say.”

Bailey said he brought an interesting perspective to the conference as a biracial Hispanic and white male. He also relished the opportunity to represent IU and to open people’s eyes about IU’s own diversity initiatives.

“It was great to get IU’s name out there to show that we are making strides in pushing for a more diverse campus for long-term educational benefits,” Bailey said.

Part of the challenge for other students speaking at the conference was to not only learn more descriptive definitions of diversity, but to decipher what diversity meant to them.

Freshman Alexis Carter of Spelman College in Atlanta said the conference was a great opportunity to give a voice to the Millennials as an African-American woman and a member of the National Society of High School Scholars.

“One of things we figured out was the difference between companies that support diversity and companies that accept it,” Carter said. “For example, which companies fully accept differences of race and sexual orientation? We asked that we all become accepted for who we are and what changes we can implement in the work force.”

Livingston McNeer, a 2006 graduate of Emory University in Atlanta and assistant manager of member services for the society, presented on the society’s behalf well as that of his Millennial generation.

The National Society of High School Scholars supports student leaders such as Bailey and Carter by offering them scholarships upon their admission to college.

McNeer said this encourages other students to take positions of leadership, which impressed the companies attending the conference.

“We were all speaking on behalf of the upcoming generation of young future leaders,” he said. “We are representing different locales, ages and ethnic backgrounds, as well as improving our chances to be represented fairly in terms of what we are believed to offer to the workforce.”

Bailey said the conference was a great way to network and meet people with a stake in corporate America, and to him, the conference’s importance overruled getting a tan on the beach.

“I did have plans to go to Panama City like everyone else,” Bailey said, “but after reading about the conference on its Web site, this was something I couldn’t ignore.”