GenFKD’s event to allow millennials the opportunity to break into the business world.
It’s no secret, Justin Dent said, that there is a wage gap right now.
“But you can’t just complain about it,” he said. “You have to do things about it.”
Dent is the policy director for GenFKD, a financial-awareness organization that has chapters across the country on 26 campuses, including Ohio University.
On Tuesday, GenFKD will host “Activate OU: Empowering Women Through Business” fair, in which local organizations from on-and-off campus will set up tables with information for millennials about how they can personally get involved in reshaping America’s economic climate.
“One of the ways we want to do something about it is through education, the whole idea is to bring in organizations who are working to advance the place of women in society and to work against structural problems, like the wage gap, together in a room and give info to students,” Dent said.
GenFKD stands for Generation Financial Knowledge Development, but when Justin Dent co-founded the group, “it was very much Generation F--ked.”
“What (GenFKD does) is we focus on the economy and politics and how it sucks to be a millennial these days,” Dent said. “We wanted to get into the conversation and start organizing students to create change and just rally the forces so people will listen to us.”
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Among the groups in attendance at Tuesday’s fair will be the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Women in Business, League of Women Voters, Generation Opportunity, Women in Engineering and the Women’s Center, which will be displaying information about its Women’s Mentoring Program and Start Smart Salary Negotiation Workshop, M. Geneva Murray, director of the Women’s Center, said.
However, the event is not curtailed just for women, Dent said.
“You can’t change society without men and women — it’s a collective problem.” Dent said. “I think that anyone that wants to be an active member of society can go and learn things from this and ultimately make us more educated and us more aware.”
Rather the event aims to inform all millennials, men and women alike, of the wide range of opportunities and programs available to help ease their transition into the world of business.
“We want to give students a means to be involved in an issue that affects all women and men,” Dent said. “And get rid of this excuse that ‘millennials are lazy or don’t care.’ No, we care and we are active, but sometimes we don’t know all the opportunities that exist.”
GenFKD is already looking at the possibility of coming back to OU for another fair.
“It's more of an open conversation with women,” Dent said. “In the future, we’d love to have a career fair, and this is kind of a test market for that.”
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