Business Education News
A leader, far from his past troubles
By Westley Reaves Jr.
Malik McGhee started preparing last February for three days in June at a New York City networking conference for standout students from historically black colleges and universities.
He hadn’t expected to be in that pool of students, handpicked by their business school deans. He’d gotten into trouble with the law while at his last college, Lincoln University, which kicked him off the football team.
He managed, though, to turn the bad situation in a new direction.
“I had to work in the real world, away from college,” said McGhee, who took an academic year off.
Afterward, he enrolled at a different HBCU. “When I transferred to Langston [University], I focused on my studies,” said McGhee, declining to detail his legal troubles. “And now, I have the chance to gain valuable experience by attending this summit.”
He was talking about the 22nd Annual HBCU Business Deans Roundtable Summit, a networking and career development gathering for students from 40 HBCUs. In addition to deans and other college officials, guest speakers included executives from corporations such as IBM.
For McGhee, a business management major who will be a senior in the fall, attending the summit was a dream come true.
“They believed I would represent Langston well, so, in February, we started preparing for this event,” said McGhee, of his deans back on that Oklahoma campus.
He’d had to overcome several challenges just to return to college, let alone to become a student leader.
“My first major was marketing and it was difficult for me,” said McGhee, recalling his initial studies at Lincoln.
Other things got easier. During the year between leaving Lincoln and landing at Langston, McGhee worked at New Deal Logistics, shadowing the operational manager. “I always spoke like a manager and I realized I have good leadership skills. I feel I would excel in a management position.”
On a whim, he switched to majoring in business management but later fell in love with it. Supply chains became his focus.
Attending this year’s summit and, for three days, living in a New York University dorm reconfirmed that he was on the right career path.
“IThis is the business capital of the world,” McGhee said, of Manhattan. “ … I’ve traveled a lot and New York is completely different from anywhere else I’ve been … There are so many diverse perspectives on business here. You have people selling goods from street carts and others setting up stands.”
Over those few days, he also made some important connections with individuals and corporations.
“I’ve gained a lot,” he said. “I’ve even been offered an internship for winter break.
“I received feedback on my resume and was introduced to a business process improvement, which is a prompt for engineering by AI, since that’s becoming a significant aspect of the industry.”