INROADS, Inc., the nation's largest non-profit source of salaried corporate internships for high performing Black, Hispanic/Latino and Native American Indian college students, has announced its 2005 "Best of Class" award winners for workforce diversity in conjunction with its 7th annual "Best of Class" conference, held Feb. 22 - 23 in Chantilly, Va. The annual conference and awards event is a focal point in advancing strategies and techniques to help corporations recruit, retain and provide growth opportunity for an ever-increasingly diverse workforce. Lockheed Martin Corporation, one of the largest INROADS national account holders with more than 150 INROADS Interns annually, was not only a conference participant but also the host this year.

According to Charles I. Story, INROADS President and CEO, the awards are designed to recognize those corporations that have demonstrated a commitment to diversity and encourage others to aspire to a comparable or superior level. National awards were presented in several categories based on the following metrics: the Growth Award, recognizing those companies with the highest INROADS Intern growth percentage; the Retention Award, recognizing those companies with the highest INROADS Intern retention percentage; and the Conversion Award, recognizing those companies with the highest percentage of INROADS Interns who became full-time employees upon graduation.

  The following are the top two winners in each category:

  Growth Award:
    Target Corporation and Pfizer

  Conversion Award:
    Boeing and PricewaterhouseCoopers

  Retention Award:
    Boeing and PricewaterhouseCoopers

Along with the corporate recognitions, Ken Disken, Acting Sr. Vice President of Human Resources and three other Lockheed Martin representatives were honored with the "Executive Champion Award" for their efforts to expand the partnership nationally and for acting as ambassadors of the INROADS mission. Their commitment has resulted in new strategies and a formalized plan to continue to utilize INROADS as a preferred source of talent for ethnically diverse students.

"The idea for this conference was born seven years ago -- and if being oversubscribed each year is any measure of success -- then this conference has been extremely successful and valuable to all the corporations in attendance," said Story. Participation in the seventh annual INROADS Best of Class conference and national awards ceremony was limited to INROADS National Accounts, comprised by those corporate clients that have made a significant commitment to the leadership and career development of exceptional multiethnic college students.

Representing Lockheed Martin at the evening awards ceremony, Emmanuel N. Zulueta, Senior Vice President, Corporate Shared Services, thanked INROADS for the valuable service they provide all corporations in search of the next generation of leaders. The theme for this year's conference, "Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders," was especially important to Lockheed Martin thanks to the very real hiring challenges that face the corporation as the baby boom generation retires. "In fact, over the next decade, Lockheed Martin could hire in excess of 90,000 new employees," said Zulueta. He indicated that INROADS is a critical source to help fill the hiring pipeline with energetic, bright young people willing to make a significant contribution to corporate America.

Founded in 1970, INROADS, Inc. is the nation's largest non-profit source of salaried corporate Internships for high performing Black, Hispanic/Latino and Native American Indian college students. The intensive INROADS Leadership Training Process has helped more than 38,000 of these young men and women develop professional skills and competencies to be successful in careers in business and industry. With more than 50 offices throughout the U.S., Mexico, Canada and South Africa, INROADS trains and places nearly 5,500 young men and women each year in salaried corporate Internships. On average, 86% of INROADS Interns who are offered a full-time position with their INROADS corporate sponsors accept. Since 1993, The Princeton Review has consistently named INROADS one of "America 's Top 10 Internships" along with The Supreme Court, The White House, and The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. INROADS remains the only minority organization to ever receive this honor. Today, INROADS graduates have gone on to become leaders in industry, academia and government. INROADS top corporate benefactors include Pfizer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, GE Foundation, UTC, Deloitte, MetLife, Kraft Foods, Liberty Mutual, IBM, Bank of America, BE&K, Kaiser Permanente, and Procter & Gamble. To learn more about INROADS, visit http://www.inroads.org/.

SOURCE: INROADS, Inc.