For the past five years, the University of Utah’s Black Cultural Center (BCC) has started every academic year with at least one new idea to help students improve their chances for a fruitful working life after college. This year will mark one of the biggest undertakings the center has ever developed, and it could become one of its most promising yet.
“Generation Next, which is building professionals of tomorrow, is a cohort program that we’re launching this fall that essentially talks about how to prepare students for postgraduate success,” said BCC Director Meligha Garfield. “We ask what success looks like for them after college, whether it is going to grad school or becoming a working professional. We really want to focus on what that development looks like throughout their collegiate career.”
In addition to being tailor-made to fit student needs, Garfield said the program will be designed using a core program style that promotes the student’s preparation for postgraduate success through networking events, professional development programming, and support.
“The reason why we are doing this program is that we have found that across the country a lot of our Black students upon graduation are finding they are only being offered low-wage jobs for their degree level as well as their level of expertise or experience—and this means that young Black professionals end up underrepresented in high wage work,” Garfield said. “One reason for this is that college campuses are not necessarily preparing our Black students to become higher-earning working professionals. What we need is for students to get into majors that really develop who they are as a future professional.”
He said information gathered indicated that graduation rates and graduate school matriculation for Black students have been lower than it is for other student populations. In addition, when Black students do graduate, they often find themselves in jobs that do not match their education level.
“We have also found that across the country when Black students graduate with their bachelor’s degrees, they are sometimes ranked by potential employers lower than White students with only high school diplomas—and that hurts their job prospects,” Garfield said. Additionally, he says that some students are simply unaware of the different resources and technology that can help them with their job search. “Even here at the U, only about a third of the Black students we work with are using an actual LinkedIn account—and less than a third have a Handshake account,” the BCC director reports. These problems can make it harder for Black professionals to find the best jobs in their area.
He said the Generation Next program will address those issues and others that prevent students from reaching their full potential when they leave the university and enter the employment market. The program will touch on every aspect of preparing for life after graduation, including honing social skills, professional networking, interview skills, as well as tours to numerous employers in the for-profit, non-profit, entrepreneurial and government sectors.
But Garfield insists this isn’t just about acing the interview or even getting the biggest paycheck—it’s about finding the perfect overall match. “We want students to be looking at a holistic approach and finding the best fit for the post-graduation working life,” he said. “And we want them to have thoughtful conversations around what a healthy work-life balance looks like in various career fields.”
“Eventually, these students will go through the year-long program, then in the summertime, they’ll be able to enter our HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) IMPACT program to participate in internships with HBCU students and get meaningful experience,” Garfield said. “Also, our local students will be working towards internship opportunities after having spent their time with us building them up throughout the year.”
To find out more about the program, please visit the Generation Next website.
