As Ayzenberg continues its efforts to foster black and Latino leaders in design and advertising, the agency partnered with LA Promise Fund (LAPF)—a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles that helps prepare local students for college, career and life—on a virtual career day to give more than 75 students from Santee Education Complex a glimpse into the careers of Ayzenberg employees and show them how to apply the skills they’re learning to real-world career options.
At Santee, a public high school located in South Los Angeles, the students are mostly first-generation Americans, low-income and of black and Latinx descent.
To educate students who otherwise wouldn’t know about or become exposed to careers in advertising, Santee’s students heard from Ayzenberg junior designer Jessica Mendez, senior art director Anna Andreen and associate project manager Caroline Johnson on their She Can Stem campaign.
Presenting on their campaign for Elder Scrolls Online were Ayzenberg associate creative director Markus Walker, technical lead Jordan Balagot, account supervisor Max Ornstein and associate director of strategy Nevada Carney.
While the gender gap has made progress within the marketing and advertising industry, the same can’t be said when it comes to racial diversity. In 2018, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) surveyed its 13,700 members, eight percent of which identified as Hispanic/Latino and six percent as African American/black. For leadership positions, the gap widens, with just 12 percent of ANA chief marketing executives identifying as African American/black and four percent as Hispanic/Latino.
LAPF’s Career Day is part of the nonprofit’s Career Pathway Connections program, a state-funded initiative that gives under-resourced public high school students across Los Angeles access to various career-related workshops.
Ayzenberg will continue to find ways to partner with LAPF on additional career days to help students discover the pool of opportunities available to them in design and advertising.
