Welcome to another edition of #Snapshot, where we bring you a glimpse of what’s going on at Summer Search.
As an organization, we are fortunate to be part of a strong and impactful community – a network of our remarkable students and alumni, and our generous partners and supporters. We’re always looking for ways to activate that network and bring these groups together.
At last month’s Summer Search Bay Area Gala, we hosted a special pre-gala networking reception for our alumni and corporate partners. This was a great opportunity to connect Summer Searchers and our supporters.
This networking event brought together recruiters/talent leads, hiring managers, diversity and inclusion initiative leads, and employees to share about career pathways and hiring processes at various companies. Summer Search circulated alumni’s professional bios and resumes in advance to maximize time for targeted, deeper conversations. Summer Searchers were able to learn about different career opportunities, while our corporate partners got to connect with a group of inspiring young professionals and leaders!
Summer Search alumni networking with staff from our corporate partners.
Summer Search alumna Lorraine Cawili shared that she found the networking reception particularly valuable because, “This event reiterated the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work, and the fact that it is all around us – in the titles I noticed in the networking portion, as well as in Fred Blackwell’s keynote address [at the gala].”
And Thomas Hughes, University Recruiting Lead at Lyft, one of the event’s sponsors, shared, “I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I knew next to nothing about Summer Search until this alumni event. All of that changed in a matter of minutes! Everyone was so authentic in how they shared their journey, their story, I walked away inspired, humbled, and ready to get to work.”
Hughes continued, discussing his commitment to cultivate the pipeline of talented young people coming to Lyft from Summer Search.
“I left understanding how I and Lyft can contribute and continue to foster the passion and commitment I got from every student, alumni, and staff member I met throughout the night. In fact, I was able to meet several students and alumni with whom I am currently working to further their careers goals of being here at Lyft!”
No Summer Search event is complete without gratitude and hugs.
We are incredibly grateful to all our corporate partners who sponsored the event – Lyft, Visa, Deloitte, Dodge & Cox, Hall Capital Partners, PwC, Premier Talent Partners, and Atlassian. Thank you for their commitment to Summer Search’s students and for investing in our future leaders!