A San Diego State alum is working to connect local high school students with billion-dollar companies — and giving them a shot at paid internships along the way.
Jonathan Cole, an enterprise commerce senior manager at Tinuiti, develops marketing strategies for billion-dollar companies. After receiving one of his company's highest awards for giving back and inspiring others, Cole connected with Reality Changers, a local nonprofit that works with first-generation college students from schools across the county.
"It's a privilege for us to all be here. It's a privilege to get the opportunity ... now the most important part is how are you going to pay it forward," Cole said.
Through the partnership, Cole organized a career day, bringing in more than a dozen high school students and introducing them to companies like Amazon and Sony for a marketing boot camp. Students competed for 6 paid internships at Tinuiti.
"Then it transformed into the Shark Tank competition pitch of hey let's help them consult on a project for Sony because the hope was that even if we get a couple of kids who are interns, we want every student who goes to this program to have some benefit for their college applications for their future endeavors," Cole said.
Cole served as a mentor to many of the students during the experience, including Diego Maya.
"The enthusiasm he brought to us lifted us, and honestly the support was beyond... beyond what I ever wanted," Maya said.
Cole says it was important to teach the students about the industry and what it means to truly give back — something that resonated with Maya.
"I want to help my sister and I wanna lead in the way that he led for us," Maya said.
As Cole receives this month's ABC10News Leadership Award, he hopes other companies will organize something similar, showing students the true meaning behind paying it forward.
"I want more businesses in this region to steal the idea," Cole said.
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