The rollback of federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives has put the professional futures of some Howard students in jeopardy.
Ariel Green, a junior honors computer information systems major with a cybersecurity concentration and a computer science minor from Orlando had spent months preparing for a prestigious weeklong immersion program at the CIA through the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF).
It was a natural step toward her dream career in national intelligence – a field where she had built her extracurriculars and envisioned her future. The opportunity was not only a professional milestone but a financial relief, offering scholarships and an inside track to a full-time government role.
Then, just two days before the program’s start, the email came. Everything was canceled. No explanation, no contingency plan, just an abrupt end to a months-long process of background checks, interviews and security clearances.
Following a series of executive orders from President Donald Trump, government agencies and contractors have begun freezing or canceling programs designed to provide career opportunities for underrepresented students. Internships, fellowships and leadership initiatives – many of which were pipelines into federal careers – have been abruptly revoked, leaving some students scrambling for alternatives.
President Donald Trump’s Executive Order #14151, which was signed on Jan. 27 mandated the elimination of all DEI programs across federal agencies and prohibited government contractors from using diversity-focused hiring initiatives.
“There’s a very stark difference between the support that HBCU students were getting in November versus February,” Green said, reflecting on how quickly the landscape changed.
“For a lot of companies, diversity and inclusion was a trend, but for a lot of HBCU students, it was a lifeline,” she added.
The federal rollback of DEI programs has had a ripple effect far beyond government positions, disrupting the career paths of students at Howard and other HBCUs who were relying on these initiatives to secure internships and full-time jobs. One of the executive orders has led to the cancellation of opportunities that students had already secured.
While proponents of the rollback argue that these policies restore a focus on meritocracy, students affected by the cuts argue that the policies are simply stripping away the already limited pathways available to underrepresented candidates.
Robert “Khalil” Kelly, a junior honors finance major with a minor in strategic legal communications from Long Island, was among those caught in the uncertainty. After a competitive selection process, he was accepted for a federal consulting role at Accenture.
While he hasn’t yet been informed that his job offer is in jeopardy, the potential fallout of the DEI rollbacks has left him uneasy. His work would involve consulting with both domestic and foreign government agencies on financial goals and operational efficiencies. Even if his role remains intact, he worries about how the new policies could impact his ability to work on government projects.
“It’s a very unfortunate reality that we are in a political climate in which our leaders continue to take policy action that results in less Black representation,” he said.
Kelly also saw the impact firsthand when his best friend and sister, who had spent four months going through the application process for a CIA program through TMCF, was later notified that the program had been canceled altogether.
The impact isn’t limited to the federal level. Several major corporations that had previously championed DEI efforts are now rolling back initiatives. Companies like Target, Google and Deloitte have scaled down or eliminated various diversity programs in response to political and legal pressures.
Target’s immediate rollback of its DEI commitments in early 2025 was, for Green, a moment that felt like “the beginning of the end.” Google removed Black History Month events from its internal calendar, and Deloitte advised employees to omit gender pronouns from email signatures.
Najla Hall, a sophomore psychology major, African American studies and human development double minor from Frederick, Maryland won a Target design competition being sold by Target for this year’s Black History Month collection and interned with Target’s inclusive design and culture team– a DEI initiative. Hall’s former program with the University of Wisconsin has also been discontinued.
Hall believes that if DEI initiatives are eliminated, they should be replaced “with an actual meritocracy or with an actual merit-based system.”
DEI is a “Band-Aid to a larger issue, which was the major systemic inequalities within our societies and within many industries,” she said.
Hall explained how even with the elimination of DEI programs students need to find other ways to support themselves and move forward because DEI “[caters] to this middle class, to a Black middle class. There’s still that inequality there. And yes, of course, there’s some that are specifically for lower-income people.”
“I don’t think we should cry too much about DEI,” she said.
With President Trump’s executive order, Hall who hopes to pursue a PhD is reconsidering her graduate school options due to many of her top schools eliminating DEI initiatives and being uninterested in schools that do not support DEI.
For students like Green and Kelly, the sudden instability forces them to rethink their career trajectories. Green, once determined to pursue government work, now wonders if she wants to be in an industry where job security depends on the political cycle.
“If I go into government, I have to ask myself, ‘Is this going to happen every four years?’” she said.
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
