People with Disabilities. Cingular, on
a state-by-state basis, also taps into
the databases of Employment
Security Career Centers and State
Workforce Commissions and the
Department of Blind Services.
Companies utilize diversity-related
Internet job boards, such as
DiversityInc.com, where they know
their job posting will be seen not
only by people of color, women and
GLBTs but also by people with disabilities. Besides DiversityInc.com,
Diversity Workings.com and Project
EARN’s online job board are used by
companies on the Top 10.
“Folks with disabilities like to integrate into the work force,” says Muir.
“To call themselves out as different and
say they need this and this, unless they
have a strong advocacy sense, that
could be difficult … It all comes down
to the supervising managers and how
enlightened they may be.” DI
every higher-education institution in United States,”
says Stern. “Employers can’t go to one place as they
could by going to an HBCU or a predominantly Latino
campus and just find 1,000 students with disabilities
who meet their skills or needs. Our focus is on the
skill needs of the employers. We don’t generalize
about hiring people with disabilities just because they
are disabled. This is not a social program. This is a
program to find talent among graduate and undergraduate students who have skills.”
Entry Point! places students in internships with
organizations such as Merck & Co. (No. 34 on The 2006
DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity® list, and
No. 4 in the Top 10 Companies for People With
Disabilities), IBM, Google, the National Aeronautic and
Space Administration and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. To be eligible for the 10-
week program, students first have to apply and submit
their transcripts and two letters of recommendation from
professors. Students considered also must have a 3.0
average or better.
“Our goal is to bring the best and brightest and we
recognize that there are multiple sources to find them.
Entry Point! is definitely one of those resources,” says
Regina Flynn, the director of university relations at
Merck, which has had partnerships with Entry Point! and
COSD for several years.
“It took a bit, but I would do this again in a heartbeat,” says Chad Cheetham, a recent graduate of the
University of California at Riverside who wrapped up his
first internship through Entry Point! at Merck’s Rahway,
N.J., research laboratory in the department of metabolic
disorders of obesity. Cheetham, who is partially blind, will
be attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham for
his graduate studies.
“The way [Entry Point! selects] students, you know they
are already the best. You know you are not getting a student because of a disability, you know you are getting
talent that could have been overlooked elsewhere,” says
Cheetham. “I highly recommend any student out there to
do what I did. It has been the best experience.”
“Every year we get approximately 600 inquiries and
end up with about 120 to 150 students in the pool of
possible applicants,” says Summers, who adds that
approximately 25 percent of students selected return the
following year. “We have made [approximately] 500
placements [to the work force] over our 11-year existence, and we know that 74 are currently pursuing graduate degrees, 18 of which are pursuing or have
achieved Ph.D.’s. Students begin with internships, but
there is a lot more to it.”
COSD was started in 2000 by Alan Muir, executive
director, and Robert Greenberg, the former director of
career services (he has since retired), because the two
realized that students with disabilities were simply not
receiving necessary career-planning services and job-placement assistance. There was a gap in communication
between the disability-services and career-services
offices, limiting exposure for people with disabilities to
recruiters visiting their campuses. COSD educates career
counselors in colleges and universities around the United
States on the various internships, fellowships and career-training programs available for students with disabilities. It
also makes companies and their recruiters aware of this
talent pool. “Before COSD, career services and recruiters
did not focus on this student population,” Muir says.
“Our students are really outstanding, and that’s what
the companies want. It’s about the skills, and if you have
the skills, the disability is minor,” says Stern.
—By Brenda Velez
