Developing and Retaining Diverse Early-Stage Talent, with College Code’s Chelsea C. Williams

When Chelsea C. Williams first stepped foot on Spelman College’s campus, that was when she started to understand diversity. As an HBCU, Spelman is (mostly) racially homogenous, so that doens’t make a whole lot of sense. Except that Chelsea could see other types of diversity, such as regional differences and differences of upbringing.  Her curiosity for how we can better understand differences in people led her down the HR and DEI paths, where she eventually formed College Code, a fast-growing consultancy and training firm, providing the critical link between the development and retention of early-stage professionals and helping organizations build equitable and inclusive workplaces.

Transcript

Jackie Ferguson: Hi, and welcome to season five of the Diversity Beyond the Checkbox Podcast sponsored by The Diversity Movement. I’m your host, Jackie Ferguson equality advocate and certified diversity executive. On this show, we discuss how diversity, equity and inclusion benefit our workplaces, schools, and communities by sharing the stories, insights, and best practices of game changers, leaders, and glass ceiling breakers that are doing the work to make our world a more understanding, welcoming and supportive place for us all.

Jackie: Today, I’m speaking with Chelsea C. Williams. Chelsea is the founder and CEO of College Code, a fast-growing consultancy and training firm, providing the critical link between the development and retention of early-stage professionals and helping organizations build equitable and inclusive workplaces.

Chelsea, thank you so much for being on the show.

Chelsea: Jackie. It’s so great to be with you. I’m so excited to connect.

Jackie: Yes, me too. Well, Chelsea, I always like to start with a question about who you are, right? So tell us whatever you’d like to, about your background, your family, your identity.

Chelsea: Yes, yes. So I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina to immigrant parents, who came to the United States at 18 years old from Freetown Sierra Leon. So my parents are West African and they came to the United States for education, to pursue college. And so I always say that that was my, that was my foundation, really, in terms of being able to dream and think about opportunity and access through my parents.

I grew up in Raleigh, as I mentioned, and I know there’s a connection to, you know, certainly to Raleigh. And that was a really great experience for me as well, being from a city like Raleigh, I think looking back now, I realized, how much history is in the city and how much I was able to kind of consider as we kind of think about my career pathway, just because of the proximity of colleges and universities.

I mean, I grew up being able to go to North Carolina State, to Chapel Hill, and just to really be surrounded by really great nonprofits, supporting youth which I think is special in, in upbringing. I navigated through high school and when it came time to decide about college, I always tell people, I knew from middle school, that Spelman College was a college that I wanted to attend.

 But it was all in my mind. It was all kind of I guess, a fantasy until I stepped in on Spellman’s Campus, and that’s where the magic happens. That’s where the butterflies and all of the things happen during a tour, a tour during my high school years. I toured Spelman and some other colleges and universities, a lot of them in North Carolina, because North Carolina has such great schools.

That visit to Spellman, really birthed something in me that I had never experienced. And so, you know, I often say that my parents and my parents’ vision and desire for more, this concept and focus of education and opportunity, I got to be able to see in my own light and journey through Spellman.

Full Episode Transcript

Diversity Beyond the Checkbox is brought to you by The Diversity Movement, hosted by Head of Content Jackie Ferguson, and is a production of Earfluence.  For sponsorship options, email info@earfluence.com.

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