10,000 Black Interns’ Post

As we celebrate Youth Month we take pride in our commitment to uplifting and empowering the youth of South Africa. Through strategic investments and targeted programmes, we are creating opportunities for young individuals to secure employment, gain valuable skills, and build a better future. We’ve allocated R126.6 million toward bursaries, training programmes, internships, and learnerships. These initiatives provide financial support and practical experience to deserving youth across various fields. Additionally, our R22 million investment in the Youth Employment Service (YES) directly contributes to training and developing youth from our host communities, fostering job readiness and sustainable employment opportunities. Furthermore, our 24-month mentoring programme involves 126 employees, 89% of whom are black individuals (with 58% being black women), nurturing talent, enhancing skills, and guiding young professionals toward successful careers. Our commitment to the young people of Africa and beyond extends beyond financial investments. We believe that by nurturing talent, fostering inclusivity, and providing opportunities, we contribute to a stronger, more prosperous South Africa. Youth Month is a reminder that the youth are our greatest asset, and their success is intertwined with our collective progress. Join us in celebrating the resilience, creativity, and determination of South African youth. Together, we build a brighter tomorrow! Read more on these initiatives from our Integrated Report, page 103: https://lnkd.in/d_rvVKC3

A picture is worth a thousand words, but what happens when those words remain unspoken? The Silent Suit. The Silent Suit campaign, is about giving voice to the inner power of young Black professionals. This campaign goes beyond showcasing striking portraits; each image serves as a powerful narrative, offering a glimpse into the rich, multifaceted reality of being Black in today’s world. It’s a call to move beyond superficial stereotypes and embrace the depth of the individual behind the lens—their aspirations, challenges, triumphs, and undeniable brilliance. By celebrating these stories, I hope this inspires a broader understanding, sparks meaningful conversations, and honours the humanity and potential of the Black community that continues to shape the future. A big shoutout to Rae Philip for envisioning this campaign and bringing it to life with passion and creativity. I’m so proud to have played a part in sharing these powerful and beautiful stories through The 10,000 Interns Foundation. The 10,000 Interns Foundation has launched the careers of over 7,000 Black university students and graduates across 35+ industries since 2020. By Summer 2025, we aim to empower 10,000 to embark on rewarding career journeys across all sectors – but we need your help to get there. Your support will fund 3,000 more internship opportunities, comprehensive training and mentorship, and offer financial assistance to prospective interns in need, ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity to participate. Donate today to invest in a future where everybody wins. https://lnkd.in/ezAaZtQC ‘The Silent Suit’ - A 10,000 Interns Foundation campaign #TheSilentSuit #Giving #Diversityandinclusion #CHRISTMAS 

Are you familiar with the Japanese term "Ikigai?" It represents the idea that your purpose in life can be found at the intersection of what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Happy to share that a decade+ into my career, and I've found that sweet spot. Today I'm celebrating two years of Hyperfocused Communications! My business allows me to live out my ideal professional reality every day. Looking back, I could have never imagined that what started as a small social project for an individual founder, would be the actualization of my life's purpose. I'm in awe that I wake up each morning, passionate about my work, knowing that I'm making a meaningful difference for humanity, our planet, and our future. My deep, guiding belief is that our sector must include the experiences of ALL individuals living and working on the front lines of the climate crisis. I'm endlessly grateful for the opportunity to amplify diverse, trailblazing, young female founders in climate, shout out Wawa Gatheru & Daniela V. Fernandez, and the climate communities both of these amazing women are building. My calling is to support organizations making a meaningful difference, including but not limited to Black Girl Environmentalist and Sustainable Ocean Alliance. I love having the agency to be intentional about clients and work, and to pour my energy, creativity, and skillset into building a better world to leave to my son. So, if you identify as a: -Mission-driven founder and are looking to build your professional brand -Decision maker at an organization with a small but mighty MarComs team -Or know someone who is either of the above ... Please visit hyperfocusedpr.com or DM me here to set up an initial consultation. I'm interested in expanding my services to additional, aligned, impactful clients and would be happy to walk through your unique challenges and opportunities. I offer narrative and messaging strategy; collaboratively ghostwritten content; newsletter ideation, creation, and analytics; investor, funder, and stakeholder communications; earned and owned media and recently, video production! If I didn't list what you need, I still encourage you to reach out! As a neurodiverse founder, I thrive when presented with a challenge. There's nothing I can't figure out in Hyperfocus; this video series project is the perfect example! Lastly, if you're none of the above and just generally interested in my career, or in uncovering the best and brightest changemakers in the climate space ... Subscribe to the Black Girl Environmentalist YouTube channel and #PlanetandPurpose newsletter on LinkedIn for a dose of inspiration... & Ikigai!

🚨‼️OPPORTUNITY ALERT: Applications are now open to become a Hazel M. Johnson Fellowship partner organization for Summer 2025! This Summer at our end of fellowship retreat our talented cohort of early-career professionals enjoyed a weekend of environmental connection, fun, unity, and belonging. Grounded in nature, fellows reflected on their summer where they worked full time internships at top companies in the climate sector, enjoyed career development programming, and built life long communities at a retreat marked by joy, adventure, and optimism. We are excited to come back next summer even bigger and better, as we grow the cohort and collaborate with more partner organizations. Share this video with your favorite climate and environmentalist organizations! BGE’s historic Hazel M. Johnson (HMJ) program launched in the Summer of 2024 to attract, support, and sustain the critical voices missing from the environmental movement. Why? Despite people of color bearing the brunt of the climate crisis and making up nearly 40% of the U.S. population, an industry ‘green ceiling’ remains, with people of color only making up 12-16% of the workforce. Within academia, the same, systemic issues are apparent. In 2021, a mere 138 Bachelors Degrees in Environmenal Science were awarded to Black women in the U.S. That’s unacceptable. Black women and gender-expansive environmentalists are crucial to ideating and implementing the innovative, holistic approaches we urgently need to solve our shared, triple planetary crisis. That’s why BGE is building a Black, ‘green’ workforce pipeline by providing HMJ fellows with paid environmental internships, dedicated mentorship, and ‘green’ career retention strategies. And we’re more passionate than ever about continuing and expanding this career program by and for Black Womxn environmentalists to benefit our community, our movement, and our planet. Decision maker? Apply to become a host organization: https://lnkd.in/eSszt5-q Register to join our info session on 10/09 at 6 pm EST: https://lnkd.in/eBHRFhZQ

Chevalier T. Thomas Elizabeth College for Women (CTTE) CTTE College integrates workshops, conferences, internships, and research opportunities to bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world applications. The institution provides platforms for students to take on leadership roles, and enables a student-centric learning environment. Students are encouraged to participate in various clubs. Faculty members and industry experts mentor students, offering guidance on career choices and personal development. The college has an inclusive environment where women from all backgrounds can thrive. Events celebrating diversity and heritage promote cultural understanding and unity among students are conducted. The college puts strong emphasis on holistic development. Professional counselors are available to address students’ emotional and psychological needs, ensuring their well-being. The institution works closely with industry leaders to align its programmes with market demands, ensuring students are ready for the workforce. We give equal importance to prepare students for higher education, academic jobs and government jobs. Lots of emphasis is given to reading habits, arranging regular conferences, and helping students write research papers and chapters in books. Our education aims at women empowerment. It is guided by core principles of values, knowledge, skills, quality and lifelong learning. Efforts and initiatives are integrated into class room teaching to instill these principles.

Every International Women’s Day is an opportunity to recommit the empowerment of women in the workplace, and across society. At Barloworld Equipment, we run multiple initiatives, all of which have taken innovative approaches to skills development, with a strong gender-empowerment approach. These include apprenticeship and internship initiatives, artisan acceleration programmes, graduate programmes and training platforms. However, the key to making a difference in gender empowerment is not only in creating opportunities but in creating intentional programmes to drive women’s entry and growth in our industry. Our efforts have enabled us to increase women representation across our business, with 38%, a number we are committed to growing. The empowerment pipeline of apprentice and graduate development has seen the empowerment of many women across southern Africa and our succession plan policy prioritises female appointments across all levels. This day gives us an opportunity to assess and reflect on the effectiveness of our programmes, to appreciate achievements and to refine our initiatives to be more effective. #HappyInternationalWomensDay

If ever your company events, conferences, or speaking engagements feel lackluster, forgettable, and flat... I have the antidote: Eduardo Placer. Check out the powerful anecdotes in his post below, and I'll leave you with this: "🕺 If your company is looking for someone to INSPIRE, MOTIVATE, and ENERGIZE your team for Hispanic Heritage Month or National Coming Out Day, please DM [Eduardo]."

The City's CLASS Ceiling... This post could rattle a few cages, but you do have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. This is an abridged version of the dissertation written by one of our first ever cohort (Class of 2023, who came on in 2018) of the Young Women Into Finance program, Lily Coleman. She looked into the issue of diversity in the City through the lens of nepotism. Obviously we hear a lot (quite rightly!) about stamping out racism and sexism and several other isms...but we don't hear much about stamping out nepotism. I am posting this because in my experience of building YWIF over the last six years, I have come to see that nepotism in the City of London absolutely lives and breathes. In some institutions, almost all of the interns are the sons and daughters of clients and/or friends of the senior personnel of that institution. Many young people have great academics and come across brilliantly well on paper. But the moment that is really instrumental for these people is the moment where they secure an internship. I have personally seen what that does for the confidence of a young woman from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background - how her eyes light up when she realizes that the people at Igneo or Cantor Fitzgerald or DC Advisory or IFM or CIBC or DigitalBridge are JUST LIKE HER. That she CAN achieve what they are achieving. Because before that, people from the "wrong side of the tracks" don't have that confidence. So by giving our young women an internship, you are genuinely changing their life's trajectory in a way you cannot even imagine. Trust me - you may see it as "just an internship" but just a few weeks doing some basic stuff with you and your team in your office can genuinely change the course of a very bright young woman's life. Anyway, please take 10 minutes to read Lily's thought-provoking piece here, and let me know your thoughts below.

Did you know that this is National Apprenticeship Week? We're big supporters of apprenticeships in education, for teachers, principals, and other educational roles. Here are a few of the benefits: 1️⃣ Earn while you learn: Apprenticeships allow participants to earn money while gaining the skills and experience needed to become an educator. This can help make education a more attractive career choice and help alleviate financial burdens. 2️⃣ Mentorship: Apprenticeships provide long-term mentorship from experienced educators. This mentorship can include ongoing support, constructive feedback, and opportunities to reflect on teaching practices. 3️⃣ Practical experience: Apprenticeships provide an immersive learning experience where participants can actively participate in the teaching process. This can help prepare new educators for real-world classroom and other challenges. 4️⃣ Clear pathways to credentials: Apprenticeships provide clear pathways to educator credentials and licenses. 5️⃣ Professional learning: Apprenticeships provide job-embedded professional learning. 6️⃣ Diversify the teaching workforce: Apprenticeships can help diversify the teaching workforce. 7️⃣ Improve educator education: Apprenticeships can improve the overall quality of teacher and other educators' learning. Check out your state's resources for apprenticeships and point those seeking to become educators to these options, and learn more about these programs from the U.S. Department of Education. #NationalApprenticeshipWeek #LearnWhileYouEarn

The world today faces a multitude of challenges – violent conflicts disrupt education and stability, a polarized online environment fosters negativity, and persistent economic inequality limits opportunities. These issues threaten not only individual futures but also the overall stability of societies. It is crucial to equip youth with the skills needed to foster a culture of peace, nurture responsible global citizens, and promote sustainable development, in order to build a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future for all. In the spirit of cultivating a more inclusive space, we’re unpacking May East’s “Leverage Point 2 – Developing spaces for gathering and belonging” – where summer youth interns of LSU-Leadership for Social Uplift relook at their everyday public spaces with lens of curiosity. Seeing what that place means to them, what makes that place unique, is the place living up to its full potential? Creative Production By: Mina Farrukh, LSU Intern #PublicSpace #Inclusive #SDG4 #KaarvanCraftsFoundation