Exposure and the Benefits of It All

So culturally, as a Jamaican American, I wanted to bring awareness to a room(s) full of ethnicities about the Advertising industry. I wanted to bring to them another option for a career choice that they may never hear of and that may even utilize their talents a whole lot better than another industry can. Unfortunately, the reality is, that there are many circumstances that present everything but opportunity to minorities. So the simple fact that someone, like myself, can come to someone and educate them on a possible option that can benefit their future greatly is almost like a blessing in disguise to many minority students who will learn of Advertising and how they fit in the mix.

I know that for me, Advertising was not one that was advertised as much as achieving a law, accounting, doctorial, or nurse’s degree/certification was. So for me, finding out what advertising was came from a lot of self-reflection and first and second-hand research. Another soon to be High School student who has Advertising potential may not go through such research to find out if Advertising is a perfect fit for them. Instead they will go for the professions or majors that seem like a stereotypical or accepted degree/certification for them to pursue according to society or family expectations (but that’s a whole other essay for a different time).

For me, I know that this experience is more than just something that will look great on my resume due to my participation, but it is a way for me to make some kind of change and that is my own personal “Why” when it comes to this advertising workshop. Even if it is in the smallest of ways, it is still a change or an improvement made nonetheless.

And at the end of the program, I found out that I did just that. Come to find out the young men that were in my Graphic Standards group had already created  business of their own and it has been doing well within their school at the Academy of Palumbo! The name of the their business is called “Plain Sight”. You can read their blog at https://www.sightedup.wordpress.com/ and also like their Facebook fan page https://www.facebook.com/PlainSights to see more of their designs and get updates on what’s going on with Plain Sight. During the final presentation, they had announced that they joined in interest of learning more about advertising for their business. As a result, they ended up learning a lot of useful information during our graphic standards meetings in our monday class sessions as well as information from the other groups and it will benefit them greatly in their future endeavors for the business.  I had no idea about it until they announced it during the final presentation and it was a great surprise (made me quite emotional for a minute actually lol). Their announcement was great confirmation for me to know that I had something to do with the progression of their education and the future of their business. Just the fact that I know that I had something to do with that is personally gratifying to me. I wish them much success!

Besides, they always say that when you do something you love you will excel greatly. Right?!