Donors: Why Partner with UNCF SPDP?

2 female medical students working with professor at Xavier University in laboratory
Donors: Do you want to build a diverse workforce? UNCF SPDP wants to help.

 

The knowledge and skill sets needed to be successful today poses a series of daunting challenges for employers as well as students.

• A college education, once a “nice-to-have” component on a prospective employee’s resume, is now a must-have—a prerequisite for almost every well-paying, fast-growing job and career path.

• With America rapidly becoming a majority-minority population and workforce, a pipeline of diverse and college-educated professionals will soon be in high demand.

• And as the competition tightens for these highly educated employees, pressure will rise to choose the right employee the first time and to make hires who can hit the ground running—employees who come ready to perform and make an impact.

Meeting those three critical challenges is the mission of UNCF’s Student Professional Development Programs (SPDP), a collaboratively designed, implemented and administered set of programs working with supportive corporate partners. The SPDP works to provide diverse students the preparation and support they need to succeed in college, familiarize themselves with the professional path on which they will soon embark and prepare themselves to be competitive candidates for future employers after graduation. UNCF has deep experience and demonstrated success in each phase of  the work involved in SPDP program design and implementation.

  • UNCF knows how to get students—especially high-potential diverse students from first-generation and low-income families—to and through college.
  • More than 460,000 students have earned degrees from UNCF’s member historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
  • UNCF-member HBCUs have a higher average six-year graduation rate than non-HBCUs for comparable student bases.
  • African American recipients of UNCF scholarships have a 70 percent six-year graduation rate, nearly double the graduation rate of all African American students (38 percent) and significantly higher than the rate for all students.
  • UNCF has worked closely with some of the nation’s leading firms and foundations to shape and execute internship programs, including both stand-alone internship programs and internship-and-scholarship programs. UNCF SPDP partners include Anthem, Carnival Cruise Lines, Association of American Publishers, Intel, The Walt Disney Company, Wells Fargo, and the Walton Family Foundation.

UNCF has developed a menu of internship components from which partners can select—and can revise to suit their needs—in shaping their customized programs. Components include, but are not limited to:

  • Student Recruitment/Identification
  • Interview Preparation
  • Career Coaching
  • Online Community/Career Curriculum
  • Mentorship Program
  • Comprehensive Evaluation
  • UNCF’s Annual Student Leadership Conference

Flagship Programs:

  • Walt Disney Company UNCF Corporate Scholars Program
  • Panda Cares Scholars Program
  • UNCF K-12 Education Fellowship Program
  • Wells Fargo
  • American Express
  • Proctor & Gamble