Month: May 2024

Southern Company

PROPEL, a first-of-its-kind innovation hub for 2-year and 4-year Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), announces the launch of a pioneering cybersecurity consortium. The PROPEL HBCU Cybersecurity Consortium (HCC), created in partnership with Southern Company, was founded on the principles of collaboration, leadership, innovation and foresight.

This Consortium not only unites academia, industry and government but more importantly serves as a nucleus for HBCUs to complement their curriculums to be more industry skill aligned and agile to the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape.

“PROPEL’s consortium will set a benchmark for developing a future workforce that is well equipped to address and solve the cybersecurity needs of today and tomorrow,” said chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company Chris Womack. “Leveraging the insights, tools, resources and access to real-world opportunities that industry and government entities can bring to the table now will help further develop and enrich the transformative skills our future workforce must have. These skills are essential in how we continue to protect our critical infrastructure and be better prepared to face the cyber challenges ahead.”

The HCC is comprised of four pivotal elements: resource hub, professional development, accelerated learning and workforce pipeline. It is designed to facilitate connection between industry, students and faculty with the latest trends, emerging technologies, training and a collaborative space that fosters the development of new courses and opportunities. Additionally, the HCC will provide real-life, challenged-based industry projects, conduct cutting edge research, collaborate with industry leaders and experts and open pathways to employment and beyond.

“The dynamic and ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape has generated a myriad of leading career opportunities that have become critical across virtually every business sector – with a mere nine percent of those individuals being Black professionals,” said PROPEL President Dr. Lisa Herring. “In partnership and collaboration with our co-founder, Southern Company, we’re cracking the code in a sector that is grossly underrepresented by diverse talent and an industry in need of a greatly expanded workforce.”

PROPEL is proud to launch HCC’s first two programs both aimed at elevating HBCU faculty and student expertise and skills in cybersecurity.

Faculty Fellows — A curated, year-long engagement and professional development track designed exclusively to upskill cybersecurity educators. This program also offers fellows the financial support to gain critical industry certifications.Student Accelerator — A year-long immersive experience designed for 3rd and 4th year students to advance their skills, knowledge and career preparedness. Students gain access to industry leaders, tools, training, and the latest resources, enabling them to emerge as highly competent professionals ready to tackle the challenges of the cybersecurity industry.

The applications for both programs will be accepted through May 8, 2024.

Currently, 32 HBCUs with cybersecurity curriculum and degree offerings comprise the first consortium institutions. Those institutions include Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University, Albany State University, Benedict College, Bowie State University, Claflin University, Clark Atlanta University, Coppin State University, Delaware State University, Drake State Community Technical College, Florida A&M University, Fort Valley State University, Hampton University, Howard University, Meharry Medical College, Miles College, Mississippi Valley State University, Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T University, Prairie View A&M University, Southern University Law Center, Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge, Southern University and A&M College at New Orleans, Southern University of New Orleans, Stillman College, Tuskegee University, University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, University of District Columbia, University of Virgin Islands, West Virginia State University, Winston Salem State University.

The HCC aims to attract more corporate partners and industry experts to forge a robust pipeline of qualified professionals, effectively tackling the cybersecurity talent shortage. For more information about HCC, how to join as an industry partner or to apply for programs.

CDP has announced major transformations to their reporting system that will impact reporters in the 2024 reporting season. What were formally separate questionnaires for climate, water, and forests are now going to be added into one integrated reporting framework with plastics added on as a new topic.

Additionally, disclosing organizations will need to navigate a brand-new online platform, track to a changed deadline, and understand and navigate a revamped scoring and reporting guidance system. In all, there is a lot that is NEW to CDP this year!

Join SCS Consulting’s Managing Director of ESG Consulting, Bonnie Holman and Senior Analyst, Meagan Maxon on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. PT/1:00 p.m. ET (UTC -8) for a 60-minute deep dive into the new CDP system changes and how to prepare for and navigate the 2024 season.

Specifically, we will discuss:

• CDP’s major changes: new technology, new framework and new deadlines 
• Understanding how to report through one survey with climate, forests, water, and plastics questionnaires consolidated under one survey 
• Understanding key developments with the new scoring and reporting guidance 
• How CDP Climate has aligned to the IRFS S2 standard 
• CDP’s new SME Module and what types of companies it applies to 
• Sector Classification system – categorizes companies by the most relevant sectors 
• Water watch tool – first of its kind that ranks over 200 industrial activities over 13 sectors on their potential impact on water resources 
• What your company should be doing right now to have a low-stress CDP reporting season

Register Here for the Webinar

SCS Consulting will be hosting an additional webinar in June:

June 18: Climate Financial Risk: The Steps to Take Before Regulated Reporting Begins

Media Contact: 
Tom Ehart 
Sr. Director, Corporate Marketing 
tehart@scsglobalservcies.com

Cintas supports and embraces its Asian Pacific Islander (API) employee-partners and communities in part through LEAD, a Partner Business Resources Group (PBRG) that is firmly rooted in creating a supportive environment for Asian Pacific Islander partners.

LEAD, which is an acronym for Leading & Empowering API Development, helps its members to thrive, fosters collaboration with universities and professional organizations to recruit more API employee-partners and provides resources and education on API holidays and traditions.

The group will reach its two-year anniversary as a PBRG this fall and has seen substantial growth during this time.

“The Asian Pacific Islander demographic is statistically the largest in the world and one of the fastest growing here at Cintas,” said Jimmy Lien, Regional Business Director at Cintas and the President of LEAD. “LEAD originally started as two unofficial groups at two different regions within Cintas, but we believed it was important to bring the two together and unite as one official PBRG.”

The goal of LEAD is to focus on three things: build a sense of community, create a way for employee-partners to advance their career development and advance connections with partners at Cintas and organizations in the communities.

To accomplish this, the PBRG consists of three segments: Connections, Career Development and Community.

The first segment, Connections, consists of a Membership & Communications Committee that focuses on recruiting, onboarding new members and providing communication updates. The committee uses a variety of communication channels including “LEAD Feed” on LinkedIn, a “LEAD Story” quarterly newsletter and a “LEAD Line” which provides text updates.

Employee-partners who join the PBRG also receive a welcome packet from the leadership council formally introducing them along with some Asian candy and snacks.

The second segment of the PBRG, Career and Development, has a committee that is focused on helping advance employee-partners’ careers through mentorships, workshops, training and guest speakers.

The mentorship program helps connect rising API employee-partners with veteran API leaders here at Cintas. LEAD puts on quarterly workshops where they send learning documents or sessions for virtual professional training to partners. The committee recently did one for LinkedIn, showing partners ways to recruit, post and share updates on their personal pages.

The final segment of LEAD is Community Outreach, which includes a committee that focuses on partnering with local non-profit organizations, fostering relationships with universities and professional organizations to help recruit future API members and educating employee-partners on API holidays, traditions and stories.

LEAD has partnered with organizations like Ascend, a Pan-Asian business organization that helps empower and develop API leaders. They are also developing a recipe book where employee-partners can share meals and the stories or history accompanying them, helping build a sense of community. They also send calendar reminders for holidays like Lunar New Year, Ramadaan, Diwali and more to help bring awareness to the vast number of API holidays.

The organization is intentional and thoughtful, as seen through its logo design. The logo comprises five petals that together form a lotus, one of the most enduring and prolific symbols in Eastern culture. The colors were chosen based on the predominant colors found in Asian and Pacific flags, and each of the five colors represents a trait of the API culture, including prosperity, pride, luck, wisdom and strength.

The PBRG’s mission is focused on empowering, inspiring, and developing Asian Pacific Islander Cintas employee-partners to drive total business performance and establish a supportive and inclusive environment for Asian Pacific Islanders to thrive.

The LEAD vision is to be the top-of-mind, inclusive community for professional development, networking, and driving business performance while attracting new talent and helping Cintas continue to be ranked as a great place to work.

While the group has seen much success and progress in its first year, LEAD and its leadership council are actively seeking opportunities to enhance their presence and reach within the organization. This effort aims to bolster support for Cintas’ diverse employee-partners, PBRGs and overall business objectives.

“LEAD has created opportunities for our employee-partners to become mentors, connect with other rising Asian Pacific Islander leaders from all divisions and reshape the way we recruit, retain and develop our API partners,” said Lien. “I am so proud that Cintas recognizes, appreciates and celebrates the unique backgrounds of all of our partners, thus allowing us to bring our whole selves to work.”