Adventures of An Intern – 2022 DEI Summit
Introducing, Katherine and Nathan! We are so excited to be joined this summer by two Plano Independent School District students, Katherine Han (Plano West) and Nathan Gong (Plano East), as summer interns for the Plano Chamber. Their internships through the Plano Mayors Summer Internship Program have been generously sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and FedEx Office – thank you for your support! Please be sure to welcome Katherine and Nathan to the team when you see them this summer!
The Plano Chamber interns are thrilled to present their NEW blog series, Adventures of an Intern. Katherine and Nathan will be joining the Plano Chamber at our various events during their internship. Follow along on their adventures as they recap our events from a fresh perspective.
Next up, Nathan, a soon to be Senior at Plano East, shares with us his experience & takeaways from our inaugural 2022 DEI Summit.
During my internship through the Plano Mayors Summer Internship Program, I’ve been fortunate enough to attend various events, hosted by the Plano Chamber of Commerce, aimed at helping the business community in Plano. On June 24th, I participated in the DEI Summit hosted by the Plano Chamber of Commerce and Plano Culture & Inclusion Alliance. This was a fantastic event, primarily due to the engaging speakers and the beautiful venue at Frito-Lay.
The first topic that the attendees learned about was how the corporate environment is rapidly changing and that our youth need to reflect these advances in their skillset. But this poses the question of how students can learn the necessary tools of civic engagement, digital competence, interpersonal skills, and design thinking without any kind of institutional support? Luckily, Byron Sanders, President and CEO of Big Thought explained to the crowd that the American education system needs to reflect the changes that are developing in the business world, beyond K-12 education. He detailed that the transformation of education can happen in several ways such as hands-on experiential learning and programs that understand the reality of intergenerational trauma. One thing that stood out for me is that the average Texan is now a younger, Hispanic girl. America is rapidly changing in its demographic, and it’s time the workforce takes this into account.
The discussion at hand then moved to higher education, with specialists Erica Simone Fidel, Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at SMU Dedman School of Law, and Dr. Crystal Clayton, Executive Director of SMU Hegi Family Career Development Center, speaking about the importance of DEI in higher education. The most important thing discussed is how younger recent graduates have certain expectations about diversity and how hiring managers/employers can meet those demands. Furthermore, they had a conversation about the specific practices that companies must adopt to attract the more “socially aware” generation. Erika offered a great piece of advice to end the discussion, which was that all workers and employers should strive every day to make the work environment inclusive so people can be their authentic selves.
The next segment of the DEI Summit was a discussion led by Beth Gerwe, North Texas Marketplace Inclusion Leader at Deloitte LLP, where she highlighted the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workforce. She explained that hiring managers and companies that pay special attention to diversity, which brings different perspectives and ideas, have much higher rates of talent retention. Beth also led the audience through a good exercise, one that resonated with me. She showed the crowd several pictures which can be seen as two distinct things, such as the picture of a face (or the word liar). The audience was then instructed to announce what they saw, and the entire room (of about 88 attendees) except for one person said they saw a person’s face. Beth capitalized on this large discrepancy by explaining how diverse ideas are sometimes excluded from positively contributing to the workforce because the reality is that it’s very uncomfortable to share your thoughts with a room of people that think and look differently from you.
To close off the event Harry LaRosiliere, Former Mayor of Plano & SVP Wealth Management at UBS, and Christopher Reynolds, Executive VP & Chief Executive Administrative Officer of Corporate Resources at Toyota North America had a “fireside chat”, which they referred to as “chopping it up”, a more relaxed conversation between two long-time friends. They both explained their upbringings and their experience with discrimination within the workforce. For example, Christopher recalled several experiences in which his coworkers were surprised at his being “articulate”. While this may seem like a strange compliment, the reality of a comment like this is that it makes the workplace a hostile environment. This is because it shouldn’t be surprising that a graduate of Harvard Law school is articulate or well-spoken. Harry recalled similar uncomfortable situations, especially in the wake of the racialized violence enforced by American institutions. However, both Christopher and Harry noted that in the wake of the George Floyd murder, corporate environments are experiencing a “Great Awakening” in terms of the realization of the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Nathan Gong
