Marshall University’s Lewis College of Business and its Brad D. Smith Schools of Business have entered into an agreement with OVP HEALTH, a rapidly growing health care company headquartered in downtown Huntington, to advance and promote diversity in recruitment, hiring, mentoring and retention, by establishing a field-based experience program that provides paid internship opportunities for students of color enrolled in the college.
The new internship program will be open to master’s-level students in all the business disciplines at the Brad D. Smith Graduate School of Business, and will begin in January 2021. Additionally, OVP HEALTH will be working with the business college and schools to provide unpaid mentoring opportunities for undergraduate business students of color, as part of their curriculum.
“Our company employs nearly 400 people across five states, and we have always understood and appreciated the value of diversity,” said Robert A. Hess, M.D., president and co-founder of OVP HEALTH. “But in looking at the cultural and racial makeup of our workforce, we saw that we had some work to do to become the kind of diverse company we aspire to be. It became clear to us that attracting employees from different backgrounds would require more from us than just having a non-discriminatory hiring policy. It would require us to be proactive, and to reach out.”
“We are thrilled about our relationship with OVP HEALTH. One of our strategic priorities has always been to help facilitate relationships between industry and our students,” said Dr. Avinandan Mukherjee, dean of the Lewis College of Business and Brad D. Smith Schools of Business. “By offering students experiential learning opportunities, such as internships with OVP HEALTH, they can practice and validate what they are learning in class, as well as develop networking and mentoring relationships.”
Marshall University business students interested in the internship program should contact Glen Midkiff, director of the Center for Stakeholder Engagement, by e-mailing midkiff2@marshall.edu, or by calling 304-696-3431.
Marshall University’s Lewis College of Business holds AACSB accreditation in both business and accounting, placing it among the best in the world. The college and its Brad D. Smith Schools of Business advance the practice of business through the education of undergraduate and graduate students and the scholarly and professional contributions of the faculty.
For more information about the business college and schools, go marshall.edu/cob.
OVP HEALTH provides an extensive range of emergency department and hospitalist services for local and regional hospitals; operates primary care and after-hours facilities; and offers accredited outpatient and inpatient medication-assisted treatment and counseling services for people suffering from addiction in a growing number of communities across West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. For more information about OVP HEALTH, go to ovphealth.com.