Danilowicz joins area college presidents for “Future of Talent Summit” panel

by Neil Harvey

March 12, 2024

Radford University President Bret Danilowicz joined the heads of several area colleges for a leadership panel discussion at the first Future of Talent Summit on March 7 on Roanoke College’s campus.

The event was part of an ongoing initiative to cultivate and strengthen bonds among regional educators and industries and to unify the workforce and economic development efforts of higher education officials, employers and government agencies.

Across an hourlong dialogue, Danilowicz and four other presidents – Mirta Martin of Ferrum College, John Rainone of Mountain Gateway Community College, Robert Sandel of Virginia Western Community College and Frank Shushok of Roanoke College – addressed a host of central issues.

Chief among those: The need to help Virginia students develop into skilled workers; the best ways to connect them with viable employers and lucrative jobs; and the importance of retaining them locally.

The panel discussed incentives and advantages for students – internships, but also options including co-ops and micro-partnerships.

“We need to advocate for our businesses to stand up to make those opportunities for students who come here,” Danilowicz said. “And then they become the future leaders and industry members of this region.” 

Sandel also pointed to the wide range of today’s students and their needs, with some seeking undergraduate or advanced degrees but others earning associate degrees, licensing and technical certification. He praised the current partnerships between community and four-year colleges, such as the articulation agreement signed last year between Radford and Virginia Western.

“Things don’t just happen; you've got to make them happen,” Sandel said. “We work diligently to make things happen.”

Asked about today’s students and the new and increased educational alternatives they face, Danilowicz offered advice to those entering higher education.

“I … tell freshmen or transfers, the biggest mistake you will make at Radford University is if you don't, within your first month, go to career services and start talking about internships and employment,” he said. 

He also pushed back against long-standing modes of viewing some degrees as less marketable and, therefore, less desirable.

“There’s too much conversation nationally that says ‘Don’t study that, there’s no employment in that,’” he explained. “What we have to do as institutions is to say, when you are passionate about that field, when you go into Career Services, the conversation should become ‘Here’s how you take that field, get a degree in it and align it to places where there’s demand in the region.

“It is not about the degree … it is about the professional track that the student is taking. And we have to show them where those kinds of employment areas are,” Danilowicz said.

Keynote speaker Kirk Cox, president of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council and a former speaker of the House of Delegates, said the state’s schools and industries remain highly ranked and points of pride for residents across party lines.

“At a time of great political division, there is something on which Virginians of both parties strongly agree,” Cox said. “It’s time to invest in Virginia talent.”

In his early remarks to the audience, Roanoke College President Frank Shushok celebrated the fact that both business and educational professionals were uniting in their efforts, and he urged them to make constructive connections.

“The most important thing about this gathering is that we’re in the room together,” he said.

Later in the day, the summit also offered four “Lunch and Learn” panel-led sessions, variously focused on developing healthy talent pipelines, capitalizing on grants and other financial incentives, career and technical education programs and meeting the modern priorities of younger generations.

That fourth panel was joined by two representatives from Radford University – career coach Thallya Díaz and Lee Svete, who is Radford’s new director of Career and Talent Development and serves as finance director for the Virginia Association of Colleges and Employers (VACE).

Svete described one objective at Radford as “helping students become career- and life-ready.”

“It’s the holistic point of developing relationships with students early in their college career,” he said.

“They come in the door, we help recruit them and then we develop a four-year plan that’s comprehensive to make them marketable in this competitive world of work.”

This is the first year the Future of Talent Summit has been held, and it marks a collaboration by the Roanoke Regional Partnership and its satellite, Get2KnowNoke; the Greater Roanoke Workforce Development Board; the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council; Onward New River Valley, Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership; the New River/Mt. Rogers Workforce Development Board; and the central colleges and universities in the Roanoke and New River Valleys.

The Future of Talent Summit is funded by grants and support from such entities as GO Virginia and Growth4VA.