In the classroom or the boardroom, representation matters
By Margaret Wilson
Like many graduates, the career path Bakari Boone ’15 envisioned in college didn’t go exactly as planned.
A Posse Scholar from Washington, D.C., the American Studies major thought he would end up in a nonprofit or education position, focusing on social justice. Instead, he’s relayed his passion for equity and inclusion into a different field: human resources.
“The first internship I got, I was working with students in a summer program,” Boone says. “I started to do some work on the side related to human capital, and began understanding what goes into recruitment.”
That position led him to an internship at Under Armour, where he saw talent acquisition in action through its college recruiting program. There, he was able to work directly with students, advocating for other Posse groups and first-generation applicants, even meeting with Under Armour’s CEO in Baltimore to discuss action items. It was in this position that he saw how to focus his passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives into the human resources space.
Today, Boone serves as senior recruiter and program manager for Apeel Sciences, a food technology company based in California. A member of Apeel’s DEI steering committee, Boone has participated in numerous initiatives that aim to use corporate power to amplify the needs of underrepresented groups. These include participating in a Black Lives Matter group that helped allocate company funds to support organizations positively impacting diverse communities, working on a speaker series that featured filmmakers, first-generation farmers, and members of the queer farming community, and traveling to Spain to speak directly to farmworkers.
This journey down the path of social justice was accelerated by his experience at Lafayette.
“I realized I was passionate about learning about social justice issues,” Boone says. “A lot of the classes I took at Lafayette related to race, gender, religion, class, sociology, psychology, and just the interconnectedness of all that.”
In addition to his classes, Boone was able to foster a deep sense of community with his Lafayette Posse cohort, an experience that taught him the power of representation firsthand.
“When I first stepped on campus, it was awesome to have seniors and juniors that were part of Posse, who immediately took us in as freshmen,” Boone says. “It’s really important to have that kind of community of other students from different cities, who look like you, that have this experience of being a minority on campus, and who can really advocate for you.”
Today, he is able to tie the impact of such a community, and his passion for DEI, to its importance in the human resources space.
“I think it’s important people see themselves in leadership and are able to find mentors that look like them who can help advocate and show you the path forward,” Boone says. It’s even more critical at the executive level, he says, where business decisions can affect entire communities.
“I think it really takes someone who knows what’s needed to make real impact and change to be at that C-suite table,” Boone says. “Because when you have people who haven’t gone through those kinds of struggles, and are predominantly white, the plights of others are going unseen.”
When asked for his biggest goal within the DEI space, Boone valued one thing more highly than anything else: commitment.
“I would truly love to see corporate offices valuing DEI more,” Boone says. “DEI always goes through ups and downs, and it’s one thing to say DEI matters when it’s trendy. But now we’re kind of back to normal with no more funding. If for-profit companies really value DEI, the amount of money that they could throw at some of these problems would be insane.”
But Boone’s advice isn’t just for corporate leadership. As a recruiter, he has important wisdom for Lafayette students heading into the workforce. A Lafayette education can help students build connections, understand new perspectives, and find community in the workforce.
Bakari Boone ’15
“I think anyone who knows the school understands what a prestigious institution Lafayette is, and there’s a lot of pride that comes from that,” Boone says. “It’s always awesome to be able to talk about the experiences that I had at Lafayette, and the ability to relate to students who come from so many different backgrounds.”
But most importantly, Boone says, be open to whatever comes your way.
“Always be willing to take on new challenges. If people want you to be a part of a committee to figure something out, volunteer to do it. You never know where the smallest opportunity may lead you.”