St Mary's Calne
On Tuesday this week, we were delighted to invite Kess Eruteya in to talk to the Sixth Form about diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Kess is the Founder and CEO of a corporate innovation company, InclusionZ, which assists some of the world’s most influential organisations in leveraging diverse junior talent as a competitive advantage. InclusionZ has worked with industry leaders in a variety of fields, including Ford Motor Company, Bank of America, LinkedIn, Experian, and Red Bull.
Highly respected, Kess was listed as one of the '21 most influential women of 2021' by Startups Magazine. She has also been featured in other major publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur and Sifted. Additionally, ESCP Business School invited her to deliver a TEDx talk titled 'Generation Z: The Impact Leaders of Tomorrow' at the TEDxESCPLondon event.
Over supper, she told us that some of the best advice she could give us was to embrace mistakes and use them to help yourself grow. She also highlighted the importance of being kind to yourself in difficult situations, which is often hard to remind yourself to do. Kess also focused on aiming high and said that this way is the best way to build confidence.
Kess spoke about how the Coronavirus pandemic led her towards her business, in which she helps aid people towards further education which they would struggle to do alone. During the lecture, Kess helped clarify the difference between prejudice and discrimination, giving very interesting and insightful examples of each.
Another focus of the lecture was recognising and stopping cultural appropriation. Kess showed us a few ways that people can prevent cultural appropriation, such as simply doing research before doing something that maybe offensive to somebody's culture or identity. She also highlighted the importance of being an ally, as standing up for a group of people that are being discriminated against is very powerful.
As Kess herself is Generation Z like us, she was able to relate to the Sixth Form and provide a fun and enthusiastic lecture that the Sixth Form learnt a lot from. When asked questions, she answered with diligence and through these answers showed how her personal experiences have led her to where she is today.
Kess’ s lecture taught us so much about the world outside of St Mary’s and allowed us to learn how to deal with situations that we may come across in the wider world.
Marybi, UVI