Longevity at one organization is also not a big priority for younger people, in her eyes. When asked how she manages these
changes, Dudley said she tries every ap- proach with students on the need to con- sider their views on jobs, but you can only tell people things so much. “I just become a parent and I yell, I scream, I preach, right?” Howard students, who comes to the
school after winning out in a very selective acceptance process, mostly tell Dudley they want to own their business, which results in her telling them that there is no magic process in doing so. “But the only way you’re going to under-
stand really the dynamics, the responsibilities and the level of commitment of owning your own business is to be in something, be a part of something, and grow with it,” she said. “Because you have to understand all of the elements that go into any kind of business and you get to understand the challenges.”
Selling an Idea When it comes to race and the fact Howard is nearly all Black students, Dudley stresses that has not focused on the diversity of the school’s
population, with most employers coming to the relationship with knowledge of. “One of the things that I built my success
on is that I don’t sell differences. I sell how they are just like every other group of students, if not more qualified in some areas. It has worked for me. I think it the important thing is getting employers at a place where when you’re hiring a young, skilled engineer, you’re not hiring a young black skilled engineer.” She said she demonstrates this by getting
employers on campus and seeing the kids, which has forged relationships that have paid off if not immediately, then in the interim term.
Students Entering Non-Diverse Fields On the flip side, she has relationships with her students, most of which are as said be- fore Black, and instructing them on possibly entering fields with little or no history of diversity. “I have the challenge of convincing
employers if they are not here, there’s less chance of growing their diversity. And, I’m going to try and convince these diverse kids that taking a job in a company with little
diversity, where everybody’s white, is okay,” Dudley said. “What I say to students who are unsure is well, the company won’t be diverse now because you won’t be there. It’s like I say that all the time to them.” The best thing you can do on the job is to
be a strong performer, regardless of all other factors, she continued. “Work hard, show them, you know, And that’s the best I can do. But I push, push, push for them to work for organizations where they don’t see people who look like them. Because I know and I say, you go in there every day, you speak to everyone, the secretaries, the maintenance people, the administrators, and be normal. Don’t go in with any other mindset than that.” Dudley also knows people are human,
and not everything will work out all the time, even if a student or grad is doing well on the job. “Sometimes people just don’t like the way you look….whether you’re black or white or yellow, they just don’t like you,” she said. For more information on what Argentum is doing
for DEIB, please contact Olivia Wilson, Senior Director, DEIB, at
owilson@argentum.org.
ARGENTUM SURVEY, TOOLKIT FURTHER DEIB EFFORTS, SHARE INFORMATION
Argentum launched the first-ever Senior Living DEIB Survey and the Senior Living DEIB Toolkit to aid industry operators and organizations in advancing DEIB practices. The survey, conducted by Ferguson Partners, collected information across the participating companies measuring both the degree to which DEIB programs are deployed and the diversity of their respective staff.
Released by the Senior Living DEIB Coalition, a partnership among Argentum, the American Seniors Housing Association, and the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care, the new survey marks the first industry-wide effort to summarize the data on DEIB.
The Executive Summary results can be accessed at
https://info.argentum.org/deib-survey-executive-summary and the DEIB Toolkit at
https://info.argentum.org/ deib-action-toolkit.
MAY/JUNE 2023
ARGENTUM.ORG 47
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
