A Norman Rockwell portrait flashed on the projection screen in room 4-201 of

the Center for Science and Technology, silence pervading the nearly full lecture room.

‘Anyone know who this is?’ asked Jason Mills, who gave a presentation Wednesday evening entitled ‘Innovation through Diversity: Diversity as a Value Proposition’ as part of the School of Information Studies’ 3rd Annual Multicultural Week.

No one in the crowd could come up with the answer – it was the Crest girl from 1956, a cute white girl with a red ribbon in her hair. Mills followed that image on the screen with the 2005 version of the Crest girl – a Latino girl named Ina Martinez, smiling wide.

The two images made for stark contrast and offered a vivid display of Mills’ key point Wednesday night: corporate America now views diversity not only as a social value, but more so as a means for profit by focusing on different demographics.

Before a crowd of roughly 30 students and faculty members, Mills, who earned his undergraduate degree from Syracuse in 1995 and graduate degree a year later, delivered his speech.

‘I’m not a professor of diversity studies,’ Mills said. ‘I’m just a person with an opinion.’

Mills’ speech centered around three main points: diversity is a value proposition, every organization must have a diversity strategy and barriers to diversity must be removed.

The speech lasted about 35 minutes, followed by a half-hour of questions from the audience. The questions concerned topics such as black people in education, measuring diversity and discrepancy of minority salaries.

Before the presentation, Mills clasped hands with and embraced several students in the crowd, one of whom was junior IST student Edwin Suarez. Suarez is currently the vice president of Black and Latino Information Studies Support, an organization Mills founded.

Suarez said he particularly enjoyed the Mills’ use of images in the presentation and that it had a pointed effect on him.

‘Jason being our founder, it’s great to have him come back,’ Suarez said. ‘It’s inspirational having someone who founded our organization. It’s very motivating to know there are people who did what they had to do in college.’

As the vice president of BLISS, Suarez keeps a weekly dialogue with Mills, who is currently the vice president and global head of Asset Management, a sister company

with CitiGroup Bank.

It’s this interaction with his alma mater that makes Mills a valuable alumni, said Dr. Horace Smith, associate vice president for Undergraduate Studies.

‘It’s critical,’ Smith said, who attended the speech and engaged in a dialogue with Mills during the question-and-answer session. ‘Any time one of our alumni return to share their wisdom, gives up their time and money and spirit to enable students to be strong, that’s an asset to the university.’

By coming back to SU to speak to students in a position he was once in, Mills thanked the university in his own, rewarding way.

‘It’s priceless to be accepted by students as someone who can help them achieve their goals,’ Mills said. ‘I know I can provide guidance the students are looking for.’

Published on April 20, 2005 at 12:00 pm