SYRACUSE, NY, 16-JUL-01 -- Lockheed Martin in Syracuse will become only the fourth Central New York company to receive the INROADS Corporate Plus award. The award recognizes Lockheed Martin's efforts to develop talented minority students for professional careers through year-round work experience and mentoring. The Corporate Plus award will be presented at the 15th anniversary celebration of the local INROADS/Upstate New York affiliate on July 19 at the Hotel Syracuse. The award represents the highest level of recognition given at the INROADS affiliate level.

INROADS is an organization committed to helping business and industry develop talented minority college students for professional careers through a year-round experience. The program entails summer employment at a participating company, training workshops, staff coaching and community service.

The Corporate Plus award is given to companies that implement the INROADS fundamentals, which include a career development plan for each intern; effective one-on-one mentoring relationships; and a professional, full-time offer of employment to interns who successfully complete the INROADS process.

Lockheed Martin earned this award by its commitment to the INROADS process as part of the company's continual support to the community while developing future leaders for their company, said Nimley Bestman, managing director at INROADS/Upstate New York. The company has demonstrated its commitment in many ways over the years and it is no accident that they are now the largest INROADS-sponsoring company in Central New York.

Lockheed Martin in Syracuse has participated in the INROADS program for more than five years and there currently are 11 INROADS interns employed at the company this summer. In 1995, Lockheed Martin created a program that combines INROADS sponsorship with a four-year scholarship commitment. A Lockheed Martin human resources representative won the INROADS Business Coordinator of the Year award in 1998 and again was nominated for the award in 2000.

INROADS is an excellent program, which helps talented minority students transition from high school, through college and into the work place, said Robert Tucker, vice president, human resources at Lockheed Martin. It gives us the opportunity to assess top talent through internships during the student's college career and hopefully recruit the student following graduation from college. We have been very impressed with the quality of the INROADS participants and the contribution they can make to our business.

A leader in ground-based and airborne radar, surface vessel and submarine electronic warfare, anti-submarine warfare systems and sensors, minehunting systems and vessel traffic management, Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems in Syracuse serves customers including all branches of the U.S. armed forces, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Transportation and State, and defense and transportation departments of countries on six continents. NE&SS-Syracuse employs approximately 2,200 people at its Syracuse, N.Y., headquarters and is a unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation.