This week, Airbus in Mobile had the pleasure of welcoming leaders from five Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) from Alabama and Florida.
This two-day event was an opportunity to develop relationships between prominent HBCUs, Airbus and our local Mobile Workforce Development stakeholders.
“Our goal in building a diverse ecosystem is to develop sustainable relationships, share ideas to bridge gaps, and learn ways to continuously improve as corporate citizens in our community,” said Thkisha “DeDe” Sanogo, Change Manager at the Mobile U.S. Manufacturing facility and organizer of the event.
“Inclusion and diversity is integral to our people strategy at Airbus and this was an exciting first step toward creating lasting relationships with prominent HBCUs in our region,” added Daryl Taylor, General Manager of the Mobile U.S. Manufacturing site. “I am looking forward to our future collaborations.”
The guests had the opportunity to visit Flight Works Alabama and learn more about the different community development activities within Airbus in Mobile such as the FlightPath9 program, We Build it Better, Aviation Academy at B.C. Rain High School and the Airbus Foundation Flying Challenge. They also toured the U.S. Manufacturing site and were ultimately invited to a conversation on building our employee pipeline and exchanging ideas of partnership development.
“We want to do this collaboration right,” said David Trent, Head of the Mobile Engineering Center. “We have an opportunity to change our entire community, and if we can connect the right people in the right way, we can do great things together.”
Thank you to all the HBCU leaders for visiting Airbus in Mobile: Dr. Quinton T. Ross, Jr. (Alabama State University), Reggie Sykes (Bishop State Community College), Dr. Jorge Guerra (Florida Memorial University), Robert Grissim and Ken Ballard (J.F. Drake State Community & Technical College), and Dr. Vascar Harris (Tuskegee University).
Photo credit: Alexandra Timoney
