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From Business at Leeds 2022 |听Full issue

Workplaces are going to change their practices around inclusivity鈥攐r they're not going to be able to recruit and retain the top talent coming out of business school.听

Leave it to a college dropout to help a university rethink big ideas around diversity, equity and inclusion.听

Mark Goldberg said he never felt cut out for school, 鈥渟o I ended up getting a lot of non-academic experience in the U.S. Navy鈥� during the Vietnam War.听

Today, he said, a story like his鈥攔ising to become president of听his own full-service real estate firm, Goldberg Properties,听despite not having a degree鈥攊s increasingly unlikely. That doesn鈥檛 bring him any pride.听

鈥淎s business gets more sophisticated, there are going to be fewer opportunities for people like me to get ahead,鈥� said Goldberg, who sits on the board of advisors of Leeds鈥� CU Real Estate Center. 鈥淗igher education is a place where we can make an immediate and impactful change, to show people from underserved communities the possibilities a business career can create.鈥澨�

In discussing the future of industry, business leaders and business schools alike understand that today鈥檚 students and young professionals鈥攍ate millennials and early Generation Zers鈥攅nvision a very different workplace for the future, owing to their attitudes around DEI and their belief that opportunity shouldn鈥檛 be limited based on ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status or sexual orientation.听

鈥淔or businesses, our society and our country to succeed, we need to reflect what the makeup of the country is by including people who haven鈥檛 been brought into the realm of business,鈥� Goldberg said. 鈥淎nd young people are ahead of the game鈥攚e鈥檙e just trying to get them to a place where they have access to these opportunities.鈥澨�

To that end, Goldberg and his wife, Dit, have supported a scholarship program, Changing the Face of Real Estate, that invites students from underrepresented groups to CUREC and the real estate profession.

A hunger for increased inclusion

Scholarships were part of the equation for Albus Brooks (RelSt, PolSci鈥�00), a scholar-athlete who played safety as a Buff. The former Denver city councilman also is a CUREC board member; coming to CU Boulder from Claremont, California, was 鈥渁 culture shock,鈥� he said.听

鈥淏eing on the football team makes you a high-profile person, but if not for my athletic skills, I would not have been included or had the opportunities I did,鈥� Brooks said. 鈥淭hat experience created in me a hunger for inclusive practices everywhere.鈥澨�

It鈥檚 a perspective he鈥檚 brought to his work as a vice president at Milender White, where he tries to create opportunities for minorities to build wealth through real estate. He鈥檚 heartened when he sees the same determination in today鈥檚 students.听

鈥淵oung people today, this is their revolution鈥攖hey鈥檙e not going to do things the old way,鈥� Brooks said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e asking what companies are doing around ESG (environmental, social and governance), they鈥檙e asking why the racial makeup of a company doesn鈥檛 reflect the community it鈥檚 in鈥攁nd they鈥檙e realizing that if they鈥檙e going to spend 40 to 60 hours a week doing something, they want it to matter.鈥澨�

That鈥檚 a perspective Ruby Batalla sees as director of the Office of Diversity Affairs at Leeds鈥攁nd as an alumna who attended CU Boulder at a time when most universities were playing catch-up on equity.听

鈥淚 was lucky to be part of a precollege experience that introduced me to peers who I anchored myself to once I arrived on campus,鈥� said Batalla (Span, Psych鈥�05; MEdu鈥�22). 鈥淭o have seen those programs grow at Leeds, to see larger and larger cohorts in our EXCEL Scholars Program, is awesome.鈥澨�

Those precollege programs introduce students not just to Leeds, but to one another, creating relationships that help future generations of students look for work. Batalla told the story of one recent graduate who left her job after less than a year.听

鈥淪he said, 鈥業鈥檓 the only woman, the only Latina, I don鈥檛 feel welcome in this environment,鈥欌�� Batalla said. 鈥淥ur grads have so many options, they can go anywhere鈥攁nd if they don鈥檛 feel that they belong, they will.鈥澨�

The reverse, though, is also true. Batalla said as more companies make efforts to build out diverse pipelines, interns and new hires are eager to share which companies are authentic when it comes to inclusion. Isha Batra (Bus鈥�25) completed an internship with Deloitte in July, and said she felt incredibly welcomed as a first-generation student on the company鈥檚 Dallas campus.

鈥淚t鈥檚 such a huge company that I was not expecting it to be diverse,鈥� said Batra, who plans to focus on finance and operations management while minoring in creative technology and design. 鈥淏ut the first event I went to had maybe the most diverse group of students I鈥檝e ever seen in one place before. I looked around and it just felt like home鈥攊t was the start of a great internship experience.鈥澨�

Gen Z 鈥榤ore open about their struggles鈥�

Gen Z is also much more serious, and open, about mental health, said Matt Vogl, co-founder and executive director of the .

鈥淭his generation is more open about their struggles,鈥� Vogl said. 鈥淭hat means they鈥檙e going to expect resources from their workplaces, which have a lot of catching up to do.鈥�

Vogl鈥檚 center鈥攚hich addresses challenges facing mental healthcare, including access to services and eliminating stigma鈥攚as designed to be more responsive to innovations from industry, to help breakthroughs get to market more quickly. It鈥檚 why he engaged teams of Leeds undergrads in a case competition to help solve specific workplace problems around mental health.听

鈥淭he students鈥� enthusiasm sent a pretty powerful message about how important mental health is to this generation, and how vocal they鈥檙e going to be about it,鈥� Vogl said.听

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A big surprise, he said, was their appetite for tech-based solutions to these challenges. This tracks with his own interactions with industry, which is keen on mobile apps and virtual reality to improve patient care. That鈥檚 important, Vogl said, to help reduce demand for overworked therapists.听

Equally important was the students鈥� enthusiasm for changing the conversation around mental health.听

鈥淚f I have a backache, I call out sick and say my back hurts. If I鈥檓 having a panic attack, I call out sick and say my back hurts,鈥� Vogl said. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 made the workplace safe enough for that kind of honesty. But Gen Z is not going to put up with workplace attitudes like that鈥攖hey鈥檙e going to go somewhere else, because what they want is to really work hard, but also to have balance.鈥�

Gregory Hinton (Bus鈥�77) could tell you plenty about safety. He called his own experience coming out as a gay man traumatic; as a student, he was bullied off campus, and wound up dropping out for a semester.听

A lack of support

鈥淭hat support system wasn鈥檛 there for me鈥攖here was no one who could help,鈥� said Hinton, an author and historian who founded Out West, a national museum program series exploring the contributions of LGBTQ communities to Western American history. The series comes on the heels of a successful career as a novelist, film producer and business manager.

One of the things he most enjoys about Out West is the opportunity to connect with today鈥檚 students鈥攅specially in places like Wyoming, Idaho and Montana that, outside of college towns, have been less welcoming to the LGBTQ community.听

鈥淚鈥檝e met so many wonderful younger people doing Out West鈥攚e are so much better off than we were in 2008, 2009, when I started doing this,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o meet with people who want to understand the history of our community and who consider our story to be important is heartening鈥攁nd says quite a lot about the younger generation.鈥澨�

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