Here For What Matters: Building Pathways For Diverse Students

Since 2020, Dollar General has partnered with INROADS to support and build career pathways for diverse students across the country. DG was recently awarded the INROADS 2024 Frank C. Carr Corporate Partner of the Year Award at the organization’s Benefit Gala, recognizing the Company’s work towards equitable education for underrepresented talent.

Since INROADS founder, Frank C. Carr, established INROADS in 1970, the organization has helped more than 164,000 students prepare for employment with companies including DG, offering free career development programs and connecting students with highly competitive internship programs.

Over the last four years, DG has contributed over $3 million in support of INROADS’ programs, touching the lives of thousands, and is proud to offer internships and career opportunities to INROADS alumni, including Carl O., one of DG’s 2023-24 interns.

Carl learned about the DG internship program through his involvement with INROADS and decided to interview for the supplier diversity department. Being accepted to the program provided Carl with his first internship and allowed him to take steps towards a career with the supply chain.

“I have a passion for helping people and connecting them to opportunities,” said Carl. “DG allowed me to do this on a larger scale with my internship in supplier diversity, and I'm excited to continue this work in the future.”

After his internship concludes this spring, Carl will earn a degree from Savannah State University and become a first-generation college graduate. He was also recently extended an offer for a full-time transportation specialist role at DG.

Other members of the DG family also consider their INROADS experience meaningful within their career progression.  From corporate communications director G’Nai B.’s non-profit internship while a student at North Texas University, to senior vice president of global supply chain human resources Ivan R.’s teenage years impacted by the support and development of INROADS – the nonprofit has made a lasting impression on employees across DG.

"Dollar General’s leadership programs helped me become the executive I am today,” Ivan said. “INROADS challenged me to come up with a goal, and when I was 16, it was to be the VP of HR at a Fortune 500 organization. I was able to do that here, at Dollar General.”

Ivan credits INROADS for giving him the first foothold into a corporate career which would lead to his 20-year – and counting - tenure at DG. “Working for an organization that allows me to give back to the community means everything,” he said in a video for FORTUNE.

DG’s partnership with INROADS reflects the Company’s ongoing mission of Serving Others, and its continued focus on diversity and inclusion, providing support to organizations that are working to accelerate racial equity.



Learn more here: My Difference Makes a Difference | Dollar General