“(Our companies) are looking for people that want to work in a diverse environments … (and) work across boundaries,” she said. “They’re looking for people that are interested in exploring new things for themselves.”

Students, such as family community services senior Amber Gayden, moved about the conference room networking, chatting and passing out résumés looking for internships for full-time positions.
“Companies feel like they need diversity,” she said. “It’s about who can do the work, and if whatever race you are has the education and produces the work.”

In today’s world, diversity spans beyond the factors of race and ethnicity, said Kelley Bishop, the executive director of Career Services.

“The strength of an organization draws upon the different talents and the different perspectives of what these organizations can bring,” he said. “Having a diversity of cultures, of genders, of races, of experiences, of orientations, brings a creativity and a synergy to a work endeavor that a monoculture cannot do. It’s literally a business edge.”

Employers, such as Caitlin E. O’Connell, a regional recruiting supervisor for Enterprise Holdings, agree.

“We think it’s important to have diversity in the workplace because we want to diversify our employee base in order to mirror our customers,” she said. “We have a very diverse customer base as well, and at Enterprise, it’s all about making sure we take care of our customers.”

Businesses are pushing to reach more cliental and they need employees that are able to keep up, said Felicia McKinney, national campus recruiting and diversity talent acquisition lead at CDW.

“The more people that we have that can reach different demographics that are a part of our market sales opportunities, the better,” she said. “The more diverse our staff is and that’s from gender, sexual orientation (and) second language skills, the better for our company.”

Companies know they need people of various backgrounds to run efficiently during this time, Bishop said.

“We are living in a time where your cliental come from everywhere,” he said. “If you don’t have that representation within your company, you’re going to underserve or miss entirely the ability to reach those customers and be viable to them.”