Thirteen Years of Fortune 500 Internships for Minority Youth in Los Angeles

Business Wire, July 14, 1998

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 1998--For 13 years, INROADS/Los Angeles Inc. has groomed four-year-college-bound minority high school seniors, with a 3.0 GPA and 900 SAT score, for careers in corporate America.

On July 24, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, INROADS officially honors those corporations, interns and alumni who are the engine of their organization. Delivering the keynote address to the more than 1,400 guests in attendance during the 13th Annual Awards Banquet is Kathleen J. Burke, vice chair of corporate human resources for Bank of America.

INROADS/LA is an affiliate of the national organization rooted in Chicago 28 years ago. It began as a process to prepare graduating African-American high-achieving high school students for leadership in Fortune 500 companies. Today, there are 51 U.S. affiliates and three international, in Mexico, Canada and South Africa. African-American, Latino and Native-American students represent the majority of interns.

More than jobplacement, INROADS is one of the top 10 internships in America, offering paid positions to qualified applicants, professional development workshops, academic support and advising. Young adults are polished for leadership in business, computer science, engineering and hospitality management.

Their commitment does not end with a paid internship, however. Students are also taught the importance of community involvement; each intern must volunteer 24 hours per year while in INROADS.

"We remind them through our own deeds what a privilege it is to reach back and help someone," explained Hector LaFarga Jr., manager of projects and planning development in Los Angeles.

Forty-eight Los Angeles affiliate interns are graduating in 1999 from universities such as USC, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Notre Dame, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Vassar and North Carolina Central.

GE, AT&T, Kaiser Permanente, Bank of America, Federal Reserve Bank, IBM, Ernst & Young LLP, Allergan, ARCO, Nissan, Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP, Xerox, Union Bank, Home Depot and Chubb Pacific Indemnity are some of the companies currently sponsoring interns.

As part of their sponsorship agreement, corporations are allotted six gratuitous seats per number of INROADS interns they employ. This includes the Corporate Team (business coordinator, supervisor, advisor), the interns the and his/her parents. Invited guests, alumni and friends pay $75 per person. The banquet is already booked to capacity.

Media may register to cover the event with BNA Public Relations on or before Thursday, July 23, at 213/931-3315. To download photos of the event visit INROADS' Web site at www.inroadsinc.org.

    CONTACT:  INROADS/Los Angeles
               Hector LaFarga Jr., 213/251-2710, ext. 201
                or
               BNA Public Relations, Los Angeles
               Joyce Haywood, 213/969-6048