Through our diversity series, we have spotlighted trailblazers within Phelps and their inspiring stories followed by community partners who are the boots on the ground championing diversity efforts in our communities. Our trailblazers worked to break barriers facing the professional practice often while working alongside community partners. The organizations featured this year are just a handful of nonprofits making real change in our community. We are proud to work with them and encourage you to learn more about their missions and find ways to contribute to your community.
In the new year, we will continue our conversations about diversity, inclusion and equity, and how we can affect continuous change. This year, the hot topic for our clients, colleagues and community partners has been workforce engagement, specifically employee recruiting and retention challenges. This started our discussion about pipeline programming and how we can build relationships with organizations and schools supporting the future of the workforce.
For years, Phelps has worked with pipeline programs with great success. With diversity and workforce at the top of mind for all companies, this is a great time to share our experiences with the organizations that are mentoring our future leaders.
Change is not easy, but it is necessary. A great example of change through pipeline programming is visible through The Piney Woods Country Life School. Piney Woods is America's largest historically black boarding school, and one of the few remaining. Founded in 1909, just 20 miles south of Jackson, MS, Piney Woods is the result of the vision of an educated black man who wanted to teach illiterate children of freed slaves how to farm and read. More than 100 years after it opened its doors, this vocational agricultural school is a rigorous boarding school for diverse students from across the United States and abroad. Many students receive tuition aid and in return, work part-time on campus. The school's focus is "all students can learn, develop a strong work ethic, and lead extraordinary lives through academic achievement and responsible citizenship, but may not have the opportunity to do so for financial or other reasons."
On the first day of school, the founder, Laurence C. Jones, told 100 students "You have come here to seek freedom, not from the kind of slavery your parents endured, but from a slavery of ignorance of mind and awkwardness of body. You have come to educate your head, your hands, and your heart."
It is now expected, not exceptional that all Piney Wood students will go to college. It's up to us as employers to ensure they, and other diverse students, have a fighting chance to excel in the workforce and change the path of their lives. In honor of all programs, educational institutions and nonprofit organizations working to give career opportunities to the underrepresented, intentionally lead with your head by engaging in long-range workforce planning and find opportunities to bring new voices into the room; lead with your hands by pushing your organizational teams to set high performance standards and by providing employees with the training and resources needed to excel; and lastly, lead with your heart by listening to all viewpoints and recognizing the contributions of all team members.
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