INROADS was founded in 1970 by Frank C. Carr to fix what he perceived to be a lack of ethnic diversity in corporate America. INROADS originally launched with only 25 interns working at 17 sponsoring corporations in the Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 area. Since then, INROADS has expanded to become an international organization with over 5,000 interns and over 600 sponsoring corporations.

Mission statement

The mission of INROADS is to develop and place talented underserved youth in business and industry and prepare them for corporate and community leadership.

Qualifications

INROADS is open to graduating high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 seniors and college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 students with two or more years left before they graduate. A student must have a GPA of 2.8 or better if in college. If the student is a senior in high school they may qualify with a GPA of 3.0 or better and have either an ACT

ACT (examination)

The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...

 score of 20 or better, SAT

SAT

The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...

 score of 1000 or better, or be ranked in the top ten percent of their graduating class. These qualifications may vary by affiliate however.

Internships

All the internships offered through INROADS are paid internships though the actual rate of pay varies from company to company. Also in addition to working at the sponsoring company, INROADS interns are required to attend training sessions hosted by INROADS with the purpose of teaching interns business skills. Some of the many sponsoring companies are: Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

, TD Bank Financial Group, Travelers Insurance, Target

Target Corporation

Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...

, MetLife, Pfizer

Pfizer

Pfizer, Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation. The company is based in New York City, New York with its research headquarters in Groton, Connecticut, United States...

, Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers

PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....

, RBC Capital Markets

RBC Capital Markets

RBC Capital Markets is a Canadian investment bank with assets of $711 billion. It is part of the Royal Bank of Canada and has one of the highest credit ratings in the world by Moody's and Standard & Poor's.,According to Bloomberg, RBCCM is consistently ranked among the top 20 global investment...

, Sunoco Inc, KPMG

KPMG

KPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. Its global headquarters is located in Amstelveen, Netherlands....

, Bridgestone/Firestone, Allstate Insurance

Allstate

The Allstate Corporation is the second-largest personal lines insurer in the United States and the largest that is publicly held. The company also has personal lines insurance operations in Canada. Allstate was founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and was spun off in 1993...

, Johnson and Johnson, Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

, PECO

Peco

Peco is a UK-based manufacturer of model railway accessories, especially trackwork, based at Pecorama, Beer in South Devon.Peco is the collective name for the Pritchard Patent Product Company Ltd, Peco Publications and Publicity Ltd, and Pecorama...

, Vanguard

The Vanguard Group

The Vanguard Group is an American investment management company based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, that manages approximately $1.6 trillion in assets. It offers mutual funds and other financial products and services to individual and institutional investors in the United States and abroad. Founder...

, United Health Group, United Technologies and Kraft

Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...

.