The largest career expo for Hispanic job-seekers opens Oct. 21 (Thursday) at the McCormick Place in downtown Chicago, with the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business serving as the lead academic sponsor.
The National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) expects attendance of more than 300 companies and organizations and 8,000 MBA professionals, students and academics during the three-day NSHMBA Conference and Career Expo.
“We chose an optimistic theme this year – ‘Winds of Opportunity’ – because it describes our view of the future possibilities available to the Latino community,” said Patrick Perrella, director of MBA career development at Notre Dame. “During the expo, we look forward to strengthening our partnerships with NSHMBA and the talented group of students it represents.”
NSHMBA serves 32 chapters and 8,000 members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Founded in 1988, it exists to foster Hispanic leadership through graduate management education and professional development.
The NSHMBA Conference and Career Expo, sponsored by Humana, State Farm Insurance and Notre Dame, offers a number of receptions and networking events, as well as a wide range of workshops in topics including career development, marketing integration strategy and global management. Notre Dame is sponsoring a career management center, where participants can seek help with resumes, mock interviews, elevator pitches and job searches. On Friday, the ribbon-cutting ceremony will feature brief speeches from Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley; Lou Nanni, vice president for University relations at Notre Dame; Manny Gonzalez, NSHMBA CEO and others. The Notre Dame Band and cheerleaders also will be part of the festivities.
On Saturday, the closing day of the conference, Mendoza College Dean Carolyn Y. Woo will accept the 2010 Brillante Award for Educational Excellence in recognition of the College’s work to support the educational advancement and recognition of Hispanics and Hispanic communities across the nation.
The NSHMBA Conference and Career Expo is open to the public, with reduced fees for NSHMBA members. For more information or to register online, visit http://www.nshmba.org/.
Notre Dame has a long-term commitment to fostering an understanding of the U.S.-Latino experience and deep ties to the Latino community. In 1999, the University established the Institute for Latino Studies, which supports interdisciplinary initiatives in Latino studies as a key component of the Notre Dame academic mission by advancing research, expanding knowledge and strengthening the community. The Institute supports the research activities of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR), a national consortium of university-based centers dedicated to the advancement of the Latino intellectual presence in the United States.
Notre Dame commissioned a national task force to study the trend of Hispanics failing to gain access to great educational opportunities. In December 2009, the task force launched a campaign to improve those opportunities for the next generation of Hispanics by expanding their access to Catholic schools. The long-term goal of the "The Catholic School Advantage: The Campaign to Improve Educational Opportunities for Latino Children”:http://catholicschooladvantage.nd.edu/ is to enroll one million Hispanic students in Catholic schools by 2020.
The Mendoza College of Business has served as a member of the NSHMBA University Partner Program for more than a decade. College departments and programs have partnered with Hispanic groups for the purposes of education, diversity conferences and other community projects. The Notre Dame Nonprofit Executive Programs recently signed an agreement with the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Foundation to provide executive education to Hispanic business leaders. Hispanic Magazine consistently ranks Notre Dame on its list of the top 25 colleges for Latinos.
For more information about the Notre Dame MBA program, call 574-631-8488 or e-mail.