Kode With Klossy’s Post

I'm often asked "What can I do to support you?" or "What can I do to support Black CPG professionals?" As we kick off Black History Month, here's something you can do today, here and now. I started Black Futures Fellowship in 2020 because, as I was scaling Partake Foods, I saw a talented yet homogenous talent pool. I saw an opportunity to open doors early for HBCU students while they are thinking about what careers are available and right for them. The Black Futures Fellowship was born from this vision in 2020, and we've made significant strides as a 501c3 organization in 2023/24. However, there's a challenge we're facing. In the final hour, several companies had to withdraw their commitment, and we have 6 talented students left without matches. It's unfortunate, but it won't deter us. In these times, I have to focus on putting feeling to action. And I want to get these students placed. 👉🏽 So, here's the ask. I have 6 amazing HBCU students looking for paid summer internship opportunities in CPG food & beverage. They are ready to talk to folks and all vetted by me and my team. If you have a network, an opportunity, an idea—for any of these potential fellows—please like and share this post, comment, and DM me. Let's get this done for these kids. Thank you in advance. Happy #BlackHistoryMonth. Let's help some #hbcu students start their futures. Together, we can make a lasting impact.

The IT industry is embracing partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to address the diversity gap in the tech workforce. Organizations like the North Carolina Department of Information Technology are spearheading this change with targeted internship programs for HBCU students. These programs are designed to offer real-world experience, aiming to integrate these students into the full-time professional sphere and enhance workforce diversity. With Black IT professionals significantly underrepresented in the sector, these intentional efforts by IT companies and HBCUs represent a strategic move towards a more inclusive and diverse tech industry. This collaborative effort not only benefits students by expanding their career horizons but also enriches companies with diverse perspectives and skills, driving innovation and inclusivity in the tech ecosystem. Read the full article for insights here: https://loom.ly/NFmaOkM. #TechDiversity #InclusiveInnovation #HBCUInitiatives

Sharing my thoughts below....

Time is running out, take five minutes to nominate your business/organization for the 2024 Top Employers for Interns Awards. All Virginia employers offering internships, regardless of size and sector, are encouraged to submit a nomination form. The deadline for submissions is March 1.    Three reasons why you should nominate your business/organization: 1. Nominees who receive the award can use it to market their internship programs to students. 2. Recipients will be recognized via a press release, social media and at regional events in early April. 3. You are making a difference for Virginia students! https://lnkd.in/ejWyS8Re

I believe Career Services is still useful despite resources like resume examples and interview tips being a search engine away. This combined with declining trust that higher education=job and the lack of urgency students feel toward career readiness and the stress that can come with career decision making, Career Services has to be done differently. A workshop in a centralized location with pizza isn't getting the students. We have to reimagine where and how career readiness happens. With my student worker taking the lead, this evening we are having a Black History Month game night with a popular student organization on campus. Embedded in the Family Feud style game are questions about our office's resources and scattered throughout the program are details of upcoming programs and information on micro-internships. From this students can build relationships (and trust) with our office and be reintroduced to our resources. We asked what they wanted to eat, they said hot wings, we got hot wings. This feels like meeting them where they are.

As it is Black History Month in the U.K. comes to a close , I wanted to showcase our incredible core Traineeship team! 💐✊🏿 Shannon Walker Nigel Twumasi Patroy Gordon Althea Blake & Trevor Johnson One day, it dawned on me how many of us are Black and I felt so proud, as this wasn’t intentional or a tick box exercise, just simply the way things are. I hope that this will be the case with ALL underrepresented groups in the future. 🤞🏿 It fills me with pride that our Trainees who come from various backgrounds and walks of life will have this many black people involved in kickstarting their creative careers. I can’t count on one hand how many black people were involved in my education or career (and I’m sure many of you can relate) so it’s great to see that we have a part to play in changing narratives and perceptions. 👏🏿 We have more Black owned businesses coming on board as Traineeship employers so stay tuned! 👀🙌🏿 If you’re an employer who is looking to build and future proof your talent pipeline, lets talk early careers!!! You can email me at sabrei.ackah@bigcreative.education If you think you or anyone you know would be a great fit for our traineeship programme. Head over to Big Creative Education website and apply! If you’re eligible, i’ll discuss your application and next steps with you! 👆🏿 🎶 Black Pride by Kofi #blachistorymonth #blackowned #blackpride #blackownedbusiness #blackemployement #traineeship #internship #talentpipeline #entrylevel #diversityandinclusion #blackteachers #blackfounders

On Friday, Sept. 8, I attended the MSU Black Summit 2023! This event focused on discussing and developing recommendations for the University to achieve Black Equity by 2030. The goal is aligned with the University’s Strategic Plan (“Empowering Excellence, Advancing Equity, and Expanding Impact”). This Summit brought Black faculty, alumni and students of MSU together to accomplish the mission of achieving equity, while finding the solutions to make sure black students feel supported and have needs fulfilled in order for them to graduate and be successful. It is the goal that by 2030, the 7% of black population that reside on campus will increase. Overall this was a great event that focused on Black excellence and empowerment of Black people. Furthermore, I had the privilege of conducting a recap on this event for my new internship with the DEI office of ComArtSci. Below is the first slide of the recap but if you would like to see the rest, you will have to check us out on instagram @comartscidei to obtain the two remain slides of the recap, that consist of the summit goals and takeaways :) ! #comartscidei

We’ll never stop shouting it from the rooftops: Diverse talent is EVERYWHERE!📢 And this is all the proof you need. 20,000+ Black and Disabled students and graduates applied for a Summer 2024 Internship through our programmes. That’s the highest number of applications we’ve ever seen! SO WHAT’S NEXT? We’ve started matching interns with companies that pledged to hire next summer. JOIN THE WAITLIST ⏰ Due to demand, we’ve opened a waitlist for organisations that want to hire from our pool of 20,000+ interns!  If you’ve already pledged, you can increase the number of interns you hire. If you haven’t pledged, join the waitlist now and we’ll allocate interns to your organisation: 10,000 Black Interns pledge waitlist ➡️ https://lnkd.in/egVVEw6c 10,000 Able Interns pledge waitlist ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eiSmNZVj By the end of next summer, there’ll be thousands more Black and Disabled young people in the UK with life-changing career opportunities. 🙌

The Power of Asking 🔓✨ When Steve Jobs was 12 years old, he cold-called Hewlett-Packard co-founder Bill Hewlett and asked for spare computer parts. It led to a summer internship and further stoked a curiosity that never went away. The story offers an important reminder: Closed mouths don’t get fed. There is something in your life that you deserve but haven't achieved, simply because you haven't asked for it yet. If you want something—and you’ve done the work to earn it—go ask for it. Worst case: you’re told no. ❌ Best case: it’s yours. ✅ Most of the people you admire are willing to help. They received help on their journey and want to pay it forward. But you have to do the work to earn that help. The old adage to sit back and wait for good things to happen is terrible advice. A little push goes a long way

When my NPower cohort started our internship at Citi in 2020, we were fully virtual due to the pandemic. I was anxious--a bit stressed. During that time, Justin Finkelstein hosted a daily meeting for the NPower interns called "Jam Sessions." The meeting gave us an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns. The meeting was very helpful. Justin now hosts a weekly meeting for Citi colleagues called "Working out Loud." Today's meeting turned out to be a 1 x 1. Sort of like Grover Washington, Jr. and Bill Withers--"Just the Two of Us." At one point our discussion turned to personal and professional networks. Sort of a "Six Degrees of Separation, "Kevin Bacon Rule" discussion. Taken a step further--when those connections are between people who have a vested interest in each other's personal and professional well-being--the effect can be transformative. In the book "Who Says Elephant Can't Dance?" Louis V. Gertsner (former CEO/Chairman of the Board of IBM), sums it up perfectly: "Business Needs Evangelism." 🤝