By Meghna Padmanabhan ’17, Staff Writer

At around 9:30 am a few weeks ago, the Newark Academy student body was ushered into the auditorium, prepared for a serious opening to the Global Speaker series in contrast to the humorous tone of Mr. Kislak’s Convocation speech. However, we were in for an entertaining twist. Suzanne DiBianca, a member of the Salesforce Foundation, kicked off her speech with a few anecdotes from her childhood experiences with the man we all know as Dr. D. Getting a sneak peak into some hilarious details about our straight-faced Upper School Principal was the perfect way to grab everyone’s attention.

It seemed like stories of Dr. D terrorizing his little sister would be extremely hard to follow up, but I can speak for a majority of the people in the community when I say that she never lost our attention. She is the executive director and co-founder of the philanthropic corporation known as Salesforce, and serves as the liaison between her business and the global community. She described the importance of corporate philanthropy, and how giving back not only can, but should be a part of an employee’s experience in a company. Prior to being the head director, Ms. DiBianca was the program and marketing director for Partners for Democratic Change (a nonprofit organization that provides skills for conflict management and alternative resolutions to NGO’s in Central and Eastern Europe) and later became the principal of the CSC Consulting Group in the Strategic Services Division, giving her enough experience to be able to apply this to a larger-scale corporation.

Ms. DiBianca spoke about the importance of reaching out to the community to find out what exactly they want, and being able to devote some time and effort to provide as much service as possible. Using their 1/1/1 model, the company gives 1% of its time, product, and equity back to the community, which allows employees to get involved in whatever organizations they are interested in. This maximizes production and provides an incentive for people in the corporation to work harder for something they believe in strongly.

One of the most important and resonant ideas she suggested was the importance of racial and gender diversity within the workplace, something that is applicable and widely discussed in the Newark Academy community. We have made so much progress through many of our own “mini” organizations, which recognize the value of diversity in the school community as well as the workplace. Our cultural clubs, GSA, POWER, and the Equity and Inclusion Team bring ideas to the table from all different perspectives. This ties in very well with our frequent discussions about gender and racial equality, allowing us to see how we can personally develop these goals on a larger scale. It is always interesting  to see that the problems we are addressing and ideas we are advocating now can become successful in the future, and that we can create innovative ways to achieve them.

Many students were inspired by the focus on intertwining societal betterment and corporate success.  As junior Rohan Bendre commented, “I really loved the way she talked about a company’s role in social change because normally, people focus on the profit companies turn, not on how companies can make a beneficial difference.”  An anonymous senior concurred: “I thought that her presentation was really powerful and gave me hope that one day I can be successful while still benefitting the greater good.”

Overall, Ms. DiBianca was a very down-to-earth, very real Global Speaker who captured her audience and really demonstrated how even the smallest of actions can have enduring results. She grabbed Newark Academy’s attention, showed us the real meaning of doing something you’re passionate about, and proved that our ideas can go a long way.

For another perspective on our kickoff Global Speaker, check out another commentary article by Roman Wright ’19.