- Professional Development Competitions in the Company’s Distribution and IT Organizations Are Part of Lincoln’s Investment in an Increasingly Diverse Workforce
As part of its ongoing efforts to invest in the future of talent and foster an increasingly diverse workforce, Lincoln Financial Group is partnering with Morgan State University (MSU), one of the nation’s leading Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, on two unique professional development competitions.
“We greatly appreciate Lincoln for this worthwhile opportunity to broaden the diversity pipeline for career development and advancement.”
The first competition was hosted by Lincoln Financial Distributors (LFD), the company’s wholesale distribution network. Students from MSU’s Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management were paired with Lincoln leaders and mentors, who provided presentation training and helped prepare the students for weekly competitions judged by an internal panel. The inaugural partnership included six students from Morgan, with the top two finalists receiving internship offers from Lincoln for its summer 2022 program and the winner receiving a $2,500 scholarship toward their expenses at Morgan.
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The second competition, codeLinc, is a “hackathon” style event, run by Lincoln’s Information Technology (IT) organization, which allows high school and college students to use their coding skills to earn credit toward tuition and books. In a new spinoff program, Lincoln will host a codeLinc competition at Morgan in April. Contestants from the university will work in teams, with a Lincoln coach providing mentorship, advice, technical assistance and encouragement on topics from coding to presenting ideas effectively. CodeLinc has been a successful vehicle for recruiting early career talent to Lincoln’s IT organization. More than 400 students have participated across seven events – 29 have accepted internships and full-time positions at Lincoln as a result.
“Deepening our relationships with HBCUs is an important component of our recruiting and talent strategy, enabling us to raise awareness of Lincoln as an employer of choice for an increasingly diverse population of students for our highly competitive internship programs and our entry-level job opportunities,” said Mike Kellar, vice president of Recruiting at Lincoln Financial Group.
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“An important component of students’ experience at the Graves School of Business and Management is experiential learning. This partnership will reinforce what we do in elevating the proficiencies of our graduates as they endeavor to compete in a highly competitive and evolving financial industry,” said Fikru H. Boghossian, Ph.D., dean of the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University. “We greatly appreciate Lincoln for this worthwhile opportunity to broaden the diversity pipeline for career development and advancement.”
Lincoln looks forward to continuing its partnership with Morgan State and other colleges, universities and high schools to invest in the future of talent and the next generation of leadership at Lincoln and support the communities across America that the company serves.
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