The first thing you might notice when arriving at the Bellini Center for Talent Development at the University of South Florida is the giant metal bee sculpture that stands outside the entrance.
Bees are a favorite of Tampa Bay tech tycoon and philanthropist Arnie Bellini. His investment banking firm, Bellini Capital, uses the insect as its symbol and Bellini sees it as a fitting one for the $10.6-million career and internship hub for USF Muma College of Business students that bears his name. “Just like the hard-working bee ensures the vibrancy of our environment, the Bellini Center for Talent Development is designed to create a pipeline for talent that will fuel Tampa Bay,” Bellini Capital says on its website.
When I stopped by the center in April, the buzz was palpable. Fifteen business students and a slew of local employers had gathered for a pitch competition, and everyone was working the room — shaking hands and engaging in small talk before the contest kicked off.
The 9,000-sq.-ft. center isn’t your typical academic space. Instead, it mimics a sleek, modern workplace, with a glass-walled conference room, a spacious kitchen area and plenty of wide-open collaboration space. The aim, says Program Director Doug Meyn, is to create a “real world” environment where students can practice their skills “before they hit the real world” — and on the Friday I was there, they were getting plenty of practice.
One at a time, each student paired up with an employer and strolled through the “office,” giving an introduction pitch about themselves. Each of the 15 students did that twice and received a score from the employer judges. At the end of the two rounds, the finalists answered a typical interview question drawn at random — questions along the line of “tell me about a time you dealt with a conflict,” or “tell me about a time you were part of a team and something went wrong.”
The three students with the highest scores landed scholarships of $1,000, $500 and $250 — and the employers I spoke with also are reaping rewards.
Justin Henderson, a group talent acquisition manager for Enterprise, says the car rental giant hires anywhere from 50 to 100 management trainees annually in the Tampa market, and activities like the pitch competition are useful for spotting “potential future talent.” White & Case, an international law firm with a global operations center in Tampa, recently hired three students it met through the center for 10-week summer internships.
The center brings students and local companies together for an array of other activities, including resume workshops, internship showcases and informational sessions. A recent event for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a Japanese banking company that’s growing its footprint in Tampa, drew about 45 students and an interesting observation from the company: USF students showed up for the event dressed in business attire. At a similar university event in another state, students came clad in shorts and flip-flops.
Dressing the part is just one of the many “soft skills” that USF’s Bellini program weaves into its curriculum. It also teaches students about teamwork, problem-solving, time management and more.
With 6,000-plus business students to get workforce-ready, USF is using technology to scale. The center has implemented an AI-enabled software program called Quinncia that reviews students’ resumes, flags errors and suggests ways to improve them. It also has a mock interview tool that allows students to do practice interviews and polish their skills with AI-generated tips and feedback.
At a time when too many career centers are ailing, the Bellini center provides a promising model for other schools.
Back in my college days, career services (at least in journalism school) consisted of little more than internship opportunities posted on a corkboard. And while today’s students have better resources at their disposal — everything from career counselors to career portals where they can search and apply for internships and jobs online — they don’t do students much good if they don’t access them.
That’s why the Bellini center baked its components right into the business school curriculum. “All too often, students are not aware of and/or do not seek out support and services available to them. And in many cases — since four years seems like a long time — they may figure they’ll get to it later,” says Meyn, the center’s program director.
Just as it takes bees time to turn nectar into honey, it takes students time, effort and practice to hone their skills and become successful professionals buzzing with potential.
— Amy Keller, Executive Editor akeller@floridatrend.com