O.C. Tanner, already supporting refugees in college, will now help them pursue dream careers

Not fluent in English but needing a job, Selma Mlikota had been a Bosnian refugee in Utah for less than a year when O.C. Tanner hired her in August 1998 to make commemorative rings.

That initial break launched a career. She climbed through the ranks to a position in which she developed training programs for people who sell O.C. Tanner’s employee-recognition products worldwide.

Now she will put her experience to work helping other refugees find meaningful careers through O.C. Tanner’s intensified support for the Refugee Education Initiative. Mlikota will work full time to advance the career ambitions of nearly 200 refugee students whose college educations are being subsidized by the initiative, underwritten for the past four years by Salt Lake City real estate developer Roger Boyer.

“Refugees want a life where they feel safe and feel like equal members of the society they live in,” she said Friday at the fourth annual conference of the group, now known as One Refugee. In a film clip, she assured an auditorium filled with foreign-born students that “there are people who want to help you. Life will get better and you will succeed.”

Mlikota has just begun to make the rounds of business leaders in the greater Salt Lake City area, looking to forge relationships that could make internships or full-time jobs available to refugees. She also organized Friday’s conference, in which O.C. Tanner and Refugee One officials gave inspirational speeches to motivate the students.

“We want them to think about their careers and their futures,” Mlikota said during a break. “The initiative has done a fabulous job in educating these refugees, but we see a need to teach them employable skills and to get them to think about careers early on.”

Dave Petersen, O.C. Tanner’s chief executive, said refugee students would do well to emulate the founders of his company, the late Obert and Grace Tanner. They worked hard to create a company with a “great workplace culture,” he said, pointing to its decades of support for refugees through its hiring practices.

“These were normal people,” he said of the Tanners, “but that’s how careers unfold. Regular people make decisions, take risks, work hard and make the future unfold.”

“Don’t think about getting a job. Think about a career,” he added. “Think about five, 10, 20, 30 years down the road. Think about what you want to accomplish in life.”

While One Refugee and O.C. Tanner are committed to helping refugees succeed, it really is up to each student to make it happen, said Amy Wylie, who oversees the Refugee Education Initiative.

“No matter how hard we work for you, you have to work harder,” she admonished. “Participate in every activity with zest.”

Those messages of encouragement meshed with remarks made by Noor Al Dulaimi, an Iraqi refugee who talked about how grit had enabled her to overcome the temptations of teenage life and to stay committed to her goal of becoming highly educated.

“If I want to be a successful dentist, I need to be in control of my life,” she said, optimistic that the One Refugee program will help her stay on target.