INROADS Joins Digital Hub to Provide Innovative Leadership and Career Development for HBCU Students

ATLANTA (JAN. 13, 2021) — INROADS congratulates Apple, Southern Company [No. 26 on The 2020 Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity list] and Ed Farm on their commitment to promote racial equity and justice through the development of the Propel Center. This physical and virtual campus will provide students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) with access to knowledge, skills, tools and resources necessary to excel as innovators and entrepreneurs.

INROADS, the career education and readiness partner for Propel, will prepare students to be workforce-ready and co-design instruction that trains students to utilize technology in pursuit of becoming entrepreneurial agents of change. INROADS will also spearhead a Community of Action (COA) to strengthen Propel’s ecosystem in step with growing the black economy.

“We see the Propel Center as a sustainable solution to bolster representation of HBCU graduates as inventors, business owners, and C-Suite executives,” said Forest T. Harper, Jr., INROADS President and CEO. “Our work with the Propel Center is directly aligned with the INROADS mission and our work to address the widening racial wealth gap in America. Similar to the high school and college students who matriculate through our signature programs focused on college and workplace success, Propel Center students will be offered real-world instruction, career exposure, coaching and mentoring, internships, and eventual career placement. Graduates of Propel will join the ranks of INROADS alumni who have proven to outpace their counterparts in the area of wealth accumulation thus impacting the racial wealth gap.”  Harper added, “Ultimately, our involvement with the Propel Center gets us closer to realizing our vision of a thriving and just society that benefits from diverse and inclusive businesses and communities.”

“These investments are critical as we begin to truly scale Black innovation ecosystems,” said Anthony Oni, Chairman, Ed Farm. “By leveraging technology and partnerships to connect students with unique learning opportunities, we can lift up the talent that already exists at these institutions of higher learning and accelerate their development. In doing so, we will have a hand in shaping the workforce of the future — and the leaders of tomorrow.”

Propel Center will begin providing its services to HBCU students in the fall of 2021 with the construction of the physical campus commencing shortly after the launching of the Center’s virtual components.  INROADS has enlisted STEMBoard, a minority-owned engineering and technology solutions firm, as co-designers of Propel’s ideation lab and curriculum.

For more about INROADS and its program, visit www.INROADS.org.

For more about Propel Center, visit propelcenter.org.

About Propel Center

Propel Center is a physical and virtual campus that is designed to provide Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with shared services to support their work of preparing leaders who improve our world. Via a physical campus and digital learning tools, students from all 101 HBCUs will connect with the brightest minds in the world, global opportunities, and with each other on their way to developing into civic-minded leaders and entrepreneurs. 

About Ed Farm

Ed Farm equips educators in schools and communities with innovative tools and strategies that support active learning for all students. Through Propel Center, that support extends to more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). We envision an inventive world where all people have access to everything they need to fill or create the jobs of the future. For more information visit edfarm.org.

About INROADS

INROADS was founded more than 50 years ago. Inspired by the famed I Have a Dream speech, Frank Carr founded INROADS to remove career barriers to corporate opportunities for people of color. Today, INROADS is credited with establishing the Black middle class. With more than 30,000 alumni, INROADS is the largest nonprofit organization committed to leadership and career development for underserved and underrepresented talent in the world. INROADS has placed students in more than 154,000 paid internships throughout its history and graduated more than 30,000 alumni into full-time professional and leadership positions with more than 1,000 corporate partners. Currently, INROADS serves 800-1,300 interns and 200 corporate clients.

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