Verizon Establishes Minority Student Internship Program.

Verizon, in association with the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and Lowe Worldwide, has developed an innovative internship program to provide minorities with the professional experience that will enable them to have a successful career in advertising and marketing.

The program will provide recent college graduates with in-depth exposure to Verizon’s marketing initiatives and to the workings of the company’s ad agency.

The initiative was designed to provide professional educational opportunities for individuals in the AAF’s Most Promising Minority Students program.

“This intensive, hands-on learning opportunity creates a fast-track to develop diverse talent in the advertising profession,” said Bruce Gordon, president of Verizon’s Retail Markets. “Upon completion of the program, interns will be well-prepared to make an immediate contribution to the advertising community.”

Each graduate selected for the internship will spend six months with Verizon and six months with its agency of record, Lowe Worldwide.

The first intern to take part in the program is Erica Perkins, a graduate of Alabama State University.

Perkins is looking forward to the experience. “I am fortunate to receive, straight out of college, experience at this level with a vibrant company like Verizon,” she said. “Working with the company and its agency will no doubt better prepare me for a future in corporate advertising.”

AAF’s Most Promising Minority Students program is the premier advertising industry awards program to recognize and recruit outstanding minority college graduates in advertising, marketing, media and communications. The program brings together top advertiser, media and agency companies with the most outstanding multicultural advertising candidates from AAF college chapters, universities and historically black colleges around the nation.

To learn more about the AAF’s Most Promising Minority Students program, contact Heide Gardner; senior vice president-strategic multicultural programs and executive director-AAF Mosaic Center on Multiculturalism at (202) 898-0089 or hg******@aa*.org.

As the “Unifying Voice for Advertising,” the American Advertising Federation (AAF), headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a Western Region office in Newport Beach, Calif., is the trade association that represents 50,000 professionals in the advertising industry. AAF’s 130 corporate members are advertisers, agencies and media companies that comprise the nation’s leading brands and corporations. AAF has a national network of 210 ad clubs and connects the industry with an academic base through its 210 college chapters.