AT&T RUTGERS AND
BY GAIL ZOPPO
Nearly one-half of Black and Latino youth in the United States fail to graduate from high school, researchers at Northeastern University have found, leading to poverty and unemployment and threatening the U.S. competitiveness in the global economy. “The work force of our future is predicated on a quality applicant pool that’s a diversified one,” says Cathy Martine, executive vice president of AT&T small-business solutions and alternate channels (AT&T is No. 2 in The 2009 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity®). “It’s our commitment around the country … to help mentor and provide support to inner-city communi- ties to allow these kids to see there is a future.” That’s why AT&T Foundation recently pledged $150,000 to the Rutgers Future Scholars Program, a two-year-old initiative aimed at building a constant alent pipeline of Black, Latino and other youth from low-income communities for corporations nationwide. “Companies are coming to grips with the fact that they are a part of the solution and have a means to make a change,” says DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti, who sits on the Rutgers Board of Trustees and co-chairs the fund- raising committee for the Rutgers Future Scholars Program. Each year, about 200 promising seventh-graders— 50 from each of Rutgers’ host communities of Camden, Newark, New Brunswick and Piscataway, N.J.—are selected based on academic performance to receive summer and school-year classes, tutoring, career counseling and more. Scholars who graduate, apply to Rutgers University and are admitted will receive free tuition and continued educational support. The first group of scholars is expected to graduate in 2017. AT&T, which has contributed $185,000 over the past two years to this program alone, recognizes that filling its pipeline with a diverse
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