Smeal Students Hosting Ninth Annual Conference On Business Diversity Initiatives

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (February 29, 2008) – Penn State student leaders and corporate executives from a variety of leading companies will gather in March to discuss business initiatives in diversity at the ninth annual S.T.A.R.T. Conference, organized by students in the Smeal College of Business.

The daylong conference will be held March 25 at the Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's University Park campus.

Representatives from several global corporations will join faculty and administrators in diversity from Penn State and Smeal to share their insights and experiences in diversity issues and discuss ways to raise awareness in the corporate world and increase respect for individuals in the workplace.

Keynote speaker Andrew Seck, manager of Business Planning & Support for Shell Oil Exploration and Production Co., will open the conference with discussion on the diversity and inclusiveness initiatives underway at Shell. 

Following Seck, the top three student winners of the S.T.A.R.T. Diversity Award, which will be judged prior to the conference, will present their topics during the luncheon.

The agenda also includes discussions led by Penn State students and executives from Boeing, GE Transportation, Philip Morris USA, and Vanguard. Topics include generational differences in the workforce, transitioning from college to the workplace, and a discussion on how perceptions of people lead to assumptions, which produce behaviors that reflect those assumptions.

The conference will also give students the opportunity to network with corporate representatives, explore career paths, and learn about the corporate climates of participating companies.

The first S.T.A.R.T. (Striving Toward Awareness and Respect for Tomorrow) Conference was established in 1999 by a group of Smeal students who recognized the need for open dialogue with professional and corporate leaders in order to create a productive and respectful work environment. Since its inception, the S.T.A.R.T. Conference has grown to become a Smeal tradition, attracting partnerships with some of today's leading companies.

Boeing, General Electric, Philip Morris USA, and Shell are sponsors of this year's conference.

All Penn State students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend. The complete conference agenda and registration information are available at www.smeal.psu.edu/startconference.

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REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu.

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.

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