Developing Future Leaders: Booz-Allen and Hamilton's Summer Internship Program for Students with Disabilities

By Joan Leotta

For many college students with disabilities, the search for full-time employment can be a daunting experience. Others may land a position, but later find the work isn't meaningful. Booz-Allen and Hamilton, (BAH) an international consulting firm, has reached into the disability community to give college students a chance to develop and contribute by providing internships in its "Emerging Leaders Program". The program provides eight paid summer internships to students with disabilities, with each assignment designed to provide a meaningful work experience and develop leadership skills.

Commitment to People with Disabilities

The firm's commitment to Americans with disabilities begins at the top. BAH Chairman and CEO, Ralph Schrader, has a son with multiple disabilities. Shrader's family has grappled first-hand with the issues that a person with disabilities can have trying to apply his or her talents to meaningful work.

Shrader says, "A job is much more than a paycheck. It provides a means for us to learn and grow, to contribute to society, feel recognized and rewarded, and form deep friendships. For people with disabilities, finding a job—and gaining the significant benefits that come along with employment—can be especially difficult. Hiring qualified men and women with disabilities is good business—and good citizenship."

These internships are uniquely structured to couple private sector employment with service learning opportunities in leading nonprofit organizations and/or within Federal Agencies. The program demonstrates BAH's long-standing commitment to professional-level employment opportunities persons with disabilities.

Disability Forum

One outgrowth of this commitment was the formation of BAH's disability forum, the group that developed the Emerging Leaders Program. The forum brings together BAH employees with disabilities, world wide, at their worksite. There are 130 members in the DC area (out of 3,500 employees overall.)

"The forum is a safe haven to discuss workplace issues—everything from assistive technology to sensitivity issues. Sometimes we have demonstrations of new assistive technology at the quarterly meetings. Often, it's simply good for people to come together," says Meg O' Connell, BAH associate and program lead of the disabilities forum. "The program has had the benefit of helping BAH as a whole learn how to better relate to persons with disabilities and helping persons with disabilities learn how to better understand the needs of those with disabilities different from their own." The forum also conducts awareness programs for other employees and works on outreach to the disability community for BAH. In an effort to strengthen outreach to the disability community, the group has assisted in the development of the internship program. The program is a way to increase opportunities inside BAH and for the companies that work with BAH.

BAH's dedication to ideas that come up from the ranks is a part of the firm's culture. Director of Community Relations, Kevin Casey says, "At Booz-Allen, we listen to our staff and want to understand causes that are important to them. When employees are actively involved with an organization or cause, Booz-Allen wants to help."

Partnerships

BAH works with many disability groups including the Federal Disability Services, the Virginia Disability Services program and the Fairfax County Business Advisory Board, which serves 700 students with disabilities every year. For several years, the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Recruitment Program for College Students with Disabilities acted as a resource for funneling top-notch students and recent graduates with disabilities to employers. That program used trained recruiters from federal agencies to conduct interviews on college campuses and compile a database of candidates for employers.

Evolution of Emerging Leaders

"This is the first year of our program so it is still evolving, especially on recruitment," says O'Connell. This year the program relied on a few colleges to get the word out, and one future goal is for the program to become more widely known. "The more word gets around, the more candidates we hope to have for next year!"

The Emerging Leaders selection committee is chaired by Justin Dart, a world leader in the disability rights issues, and is often referred to as the " Father of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act." (For more information on Justin Dart, check out: www.libertyresources.org/dc/dart-index.html) The Emerging Leaders Program Director, Barbara Haight, calls the program BAH's effort to "help identify and foster the talents of the Justin Darts of tomorrow." Criteria for selection into the program demands high qualifications from applicants, who are near the beginning of their careers with records of academic and volunteer achievement.

Of the fifteen college students who applied this year, eight were accepted. Four interns will be assigned to BAH, and four will be hired by firms requesting interns. (The details of which four firms would take interns had not been finalized at press time.) In March, BAH brought the eight finalists to the DC area for additional interviews and introduced them at a Business Leadership Network (BLN) event. BAH is the lead company for the Northern Virginia chapter of BLN National. BLN is coordinated by the U.S. Office of Disability Employment Policy, formerly the President's Committee on Employment of Persons with Disabilities.

The Program in Action

"For our kick off, we have an initial meeting that includes interns, employers, and managers who will work directly with the students. We will talk about their work, activity in the program, and their role as the first Emerging Leaders class," says Haight.

In addition to the work experience, the interns will enjoy BAH-sponsored training and will meet with senior leaders from the public and private sectors. One goal of program is for companies to experience first-hand that people with disabilities make good, professional-level employees. Interns will spend six weeks with the employing firm and two with a non-profit or government agency identified by the firm.

The Students

The eight interns hail from all over the country. Their disabilities include deafness and usher's syndrome (a condition leading to deaf-blindness), and a cancer and a stroke survivor.

The students are:

Scott Brotherton, Centreville, VA, sophomore at Virginia Military Institute majoring in economics and business.

Barry Cuffee, Herndon, VA, freshman at George Mason University, majoring in Intellectual Property and has a BS in biology from Virginia Union University.

Meredith DeDona, Waynesboro, PA, sophomore, American University, majoring in International Relations.

Chamroeum Dee, Milpitas, AC, junior Rochester Institute of Technology, majoring in Management Information Systems.

Margaux Hoover, Kensington, MD, junior, American University, majoring in Public Communications and International Relations.

Jonathan Lefler, Reston,VA, senior at South Lakes HS, plans to major in Biology.

Daniel Millikin, Flourtown, PA, senior, Rochester Institute of Technology, majoring in Psychology.

Adam Stone, Del Mar, CA, freshman, Rochester Institute of Technology, majoring in Professional and Technical Communication.

More Information

To find out more about Emerging Leaders e-mail: , or check out the firm's website at www.bah.com. It's never too early to start thinking about next year.