Amid Hispanic Heritage Month BOLD Holds Meeting To Inform Students About Upcoming MAIP Program
In light of the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP) applications opening up this Monday, September 28th, BOLD held an informational meeting about the program on Tuesday, September 29th. MAIP is a professional development program and network for multicultural college students and graduates. The program provides a platform for over 3,500 students to work with some of the biggest advertising agencies in the country. The meeting featured Enrique Rosell, former BOLD Associate, 2019 MAIP Fellow, and MAIP Ambassador as well as Adrian Williams, BOLD Associate and 2020 MAIP Fellow.
One of the reasons MAIP is so impactul is because it gives multicultural students the opportunity to work with some of the top advertising agencies in the country in a field that is constantly struggling to include minority representation. “Being outside of Miami, it was the first time I was the only Hispanic person in the room,” said Enrique who participated in MAIP during the summer of 2019 as an intern at FCB Chicago. He worked as an Account Manager for the Clorox account. “My team was so cool and so much fun. I worked for GLAD products and Pine-Sol… the stuff they were doing was insane. Do not underestimate whatever client you might be put with,” he added.
As an intern for the Clorox account, Enrique had the opportunity to attend a meeting with the Pine-Sol team, discussing racism and their reach within different communities. “At one point in the presentation one of the Clorox executives said they wished they had the perspective of the Latin American market and I looked around and realized that I was the only Hispanic person in the room. That is why it is important to have more people at the table because I was the only one in that moment but hopefully in the future it won’t have to be like that,” said Enrique.
This summer due to pandemic, MAIP transitioned to an online format. It is currently unknown whether the program will continue online for the upcoming summer or transition back to their traditional format where students get the chance to reside and work in different cities. Adrian Williams participated in the program virtually this summer and spoke to students about his experience in comparison to Enrique’s. “Although online was really different because you don’t get that in person experience, we did a lot of networking and connecting with people in the industry,” said Adrian. Benefitting from the MAIP program, interns are given the opportunity to connect with advertising professionals they otherwise would not have been able to. “Being online we were able to form a really close community and still to this day, even after the program finished, still talk to each other.” said Adrian.
In the last year, MAIP has accepted more BOLD members, doubling from three participants in 2019 to seven in 2020. Carlos Ortiz, BOLD president, encouraged all students to apply this semester. “It is a great opportunity and something that we’re super proud of, we know that each and every single one of you has the potential to make it,” said Carlos.
For more information about MAIP and how you can apply visit: https://foundation.aaaa.org.
BOLD is a student-run strategic communications agency at Florida International University. Click here to learn more.
Written by: Alejandra Chahine, Director of Public Relations