Monster DLP

A couple months ago I got an email from the Engineering Department to students about the Monster.com Diversity Leadership Program, or DLP. I applied on a whim and got accepted. Among 25,000 applications nation-wide, only 3000 were accepted for 10 programs in 10 cities, 300 students each.

To be honest, I had no clue what was going to happen. I read the website and it sounded like a load of bovine scatology, industry phrases like "high energy" and "edutainment," as if that video game genre didn't die in 1994. After a while, sponsors for the event were announced, and the only one that came close to anything engineering was Lockheed Martin (which wasn't unexpected, they shell out a lot for promotions). Everything else was geared more towards business, finance, and communications majors. The whole summer I imagined it would be a fake program with fake "energy" with unnecessarily hyped people like at a political rally. I had no information on the schedule of events except for time to "network with sponsors."

The website and emails said that there would be scholarships and prizes, but here's what the website said... "To increase your chance of winning a scholarship, come with lots of energy and be prepared to take risks, have fun and let your true leader shine through!" Now, my detectors smell something phony, but if this was in fact correct, I had two options for the weekend.

1. Sit back and laugh at (and not with) everyone for being over-hyped for no reason, hate on everyone and everything I think is out of place, display no "energy," and have peace of mind in being able to think back to this event and be proud that I didn't make a complete fool out of myself. I could pay attention during the workshops, network with sponsors, and have no chance of getting a scholarship.

2. Forget everything about a well-defined self image and act a fool. Yell, scream, dance, cheer, embarrass myself in front of people I don't know, and do whatever is unexpectedly expected from a "Diversity Leadership Program." I run the risk of getting demeaning looks, weird stares, rejection from women I'll never see again, and scaring off potential employers whom I will never see again. On the plus side, I have a chance to win a scholarship, look cool, and let loose. I can pay attention during the workshops, network with sponsors (assuming I didn't scare them off), and let loose.

As of Friday, I hadn't made a decision on which one I was going to choose. I arrived Friday evening only to get lost with 3 other guys trying to find out where the registration took place. The reason we got there on Friday was because Enterprise was hosting a pizza party, and nothing attracts a college student quite like the words "free" and "pizza" or any combination thereof. I played pool, met some people, and got weird looks from girls as I approached them. Standard routine for me. The exception on the night came with individual introductions. We went around the room introducing ourselves one at a time, and when it was my turn I said, "I'm Ben, I go to UCF, and I'm an Aerospace Engineering Super-senior." The room erupted in applause for that phrase. Throughout the weekend the Enterprise reps called me Super Senior.

I was originally roomed with another girl in a girl's dorm bathroom. Unfortunately, that had to change, not just because I wanted to stay with the girls, but also because I had to make about 4 trips back to the registration place barefoot because I locked my shoes in the room the first time, then I had to move to the 3rd floor. Oh well.

After breakfast on Saturday, I made the trek to the other side of campus where the program registration started (every time we had to go to a new event, we had a long walk because the USF campus is a lot more spread out than the UCF campus. It wasn't exactly the heat that got me; it was the 368% humidity). In front of the registration table, there were about 50 sponsors in two lines forming arches over the walkway, all too old to be dancing to Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl." As much as I think that song is stupid, it has nothing on the sight before my eyes. As I stand, awestruck and confused, I know this is the time where I must choose between options 1 and 2. Option 1 is looking a lot better right now because of the sheer magnitude of ease in which to laugh at these people.

"Aw heck... It's impossible to look that stupid," I thought. Option 2 was selected.

I ran in, posed like a pimp a few times, and ran through high fiving everyone like I was the man. Always make a good entrance, they say. Once some of us were registered, we filled out business cards (why we couldn't use a copier I don't know...) then watched the same video that came on a CD in the mail about the program. After that, we moved to the gym (long walk in the heat) and formed little groups and each of us answered a personal question. The sponsors gradually mixed in and got to know us better, and I exchanged business cards with the Lockheed people before we left for lunch.

During lunch our facilitators tried to get us to come up with cheers so the team could win the Energy and Synergy awards. What we would win along with the title is still unknown. I came up with a cheer based on a hip-hop song called "It's Going Down." I also adapted another one from an old Boy Scout cheer that was pretty popular among the facilitators. Following lunch was our first set of workshops. The first one was resume tips and organizing. Since I've done a ton of these already, but never actually had it critiqued, I was happy that one of the Lockheed people was very impressed not only with the content but the format as well. He said that normally he only reads the first half because it's boring, but read mine all the way through.

The next workshop was an interview skills presentation, which actually helped me a lot because I've never had a competitive interview. The only interviews I've ever had were for Firehouse Subs (can you breathe? Good, you're hired.), SAIC (you know Mr. Newton and he highly recommends you? Good, you're hired), and SARC (you were a good tutor last semester, you're hired). The most important thing I learned was a good answer to the question "Tell me about yourself." We had a sheet with four blocks for different aspects of our life to incorporate.

Since groups 15 and 16 were primarily for engineers (hence the Lockheed Martin staff and sponsors), we had an engineering design competition similar to stuff we had at Winterfest in Venture Crew, except there were many realistic surprises that I thought were very engineering-oriented (customer changed specs, communications blackout, another team we had to work with that was hidden from us beforehand, etc.) No team was successful, but our team was the closest to the target, and was able to hit it after the competition was over.

After dinner there was a competition to take creative pictures. It's really hard to explain, but because of this I was able to get one and only one picture of me at the event. The caption is "The Pit and the Pendulum." We had to do 10 in total, and the team who had the most creative pictures one.

The Saturday night Target-sponsored party that the facilitators had been hyping up was next. I didn't think the decorations were that great, but the Red Bull punch was delicious. There was a dance competition that I was reluctant to enter, but because I had talked about how I was in Elements and could breakdance, I got pushed in. This isn't a typical ballroom dance style competition. This is a crowd-pleasing competition. I was up against guys who knew moves to the specific song that was playing and girls that could shake it better than... a lot of things. I can't dance like that, so I knew I had to go all out. The competition was organized in a cypher (the crowd forms a large circle while the competitors danced in the middle) and there was just enough space for me to throw down a six step and a few freezes. As people started getting eliminated (and I lost my breath) the circle got smaller until the Target sponsors only had two people at a time dancing. This part was actually very unfair because the winner between the two had to dance again right after that against another person. Two girls went up against each other, and one blew the other out of the water. Then the guy who I thought would win for sure went up against the girl and lost. I was surprised. Then it was my turn.

I got in the cypher and she immediately started "serving" me. I knew that since this was a crowd-judged battle I had to hype them up, so I walked circles around her waving my arms and building up the crowd before I did a few six step patterns and headspins. Apparently this was enough to defeat her, but I was completely out of breath to dance against the last guy. He came in the circle and started pop locking and sliding like a champ. I started six-stepping, freezing, and spinning, but then he got down and started doing some break moves. Since I had the upper hand, and the best way to one-up a breaker is to copy his moves and add one more touch, that's exactly what I did. By this point I couldn't go on anymore because I was too hot, but luckily that was it. The Target sponsors announced the competition was over and we had both won, and they handed the two of us $15 gift certificates to Target.

Let me say that again... I... won... a HIP HOP dance competition. The whitest guy there beat some of the smoothest pimps out there. Ben Corbin was able to breakdance well enough to beat everyone else's normal club dancing. This is a first, and probably an only. Prizes usually aren't that important in hip-hop stuff because the glory is far more important. I finally felt it, then proceeded to the drink table to chug Red Bull punch and a few quarts of ice water. After a half hour or so I cooled down enough to start dancing again. All it all, I really enjoyed the dance and thought it was the best part of the whole experience. I wonder why I had trouble going to sleep that night.

The next day they gave away some prizes before we went to our workshops. These two workshops focused on defining diversity and communication styles. Both of these workshops were well done and I learned a lot. I liked the diversity one, even though it wasn't as useful as the communication one.

Once the workshops were finished and we finished lunch, we had time to network with all the sponsors and all the students. Since Lockheed Martin was the only engineering sponsor, I gave them my card and resume and then started talking to everyone there. We're all on Facebook so it's a lot easier to pass messaged among us all. I also tried to talk to the Navy recruiters to see if they had any civilian aircraft or pilot positions, but she wouldn't shut her mouth for half a second, so I couldn't ask.

At the closing ceremonies a motivational speaker gave a speech. I don’t really remember what he talked about, but I think I have an outline in the binder they gave us. Lockheed Martin sponsors went on stage to present scholarships right after that, and choice #2 paid off for me. Because I was “enthusiastic” and “energized” as well as a “great dancer” in the “hip-hop club,” they gave me a $500 scholarship. This was the second best part of the weekend for me, even though it should have been the best.

I said goodbye to all my new friends, thinking about how I could top this experience if I went next year. To recap, I got:

A bunch of free stuff from sponsors
A Lockheed Martin hat and t-shirt
A Monster.com hat
A $15 gift certificate from Target
Connections with Lockheed Martin recruiters
Next month's rent minus $15
New friends I'll keep in contact with.

Not bad for applying on a whim and a $15 investment in gas.