Blog

Nicole A. Tinson

Every morning when I walk outside, I see the view of the nation’s Capitol. Coming from  South Central Los Angeles, I am doing the unimaginable. I told my high school counselor I wanted to be lawyer and a public servant and she told me to “just attend a community college and pick up a trade like doing hair.” I was often told I wouldn’t be college material, and I stand today as proof that I am. Dillard University gave me the chance to become “college material” and to work hard toward my goal of being a lawyer. An internship put me closer to realizing that I can be a lawyer and public servant with enough dedication.

In 2012, the Associated Press reported that nearly 53 percent of recent college graduates are either unemployed or underemployed. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at the end of 2010, black Americans, 25 years old and older, with a college education had an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, while the rate for white college graduates was 4.2 percent.

Understanding the importance of securing an internship before your senior year may help to build your resume and give you practical experience in your field – something that you can offer your employer after graduation day. There are four main steps to finding an internship:

Check out all available resources. There are so many internships programs! it is up to you to do the research to find them. If you are interested in public policy, law, or government, consider the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s internship program. They will place you in a congressional or federal office, house you, and give you the tools necessary to succeed during the internship and when the internship is over. Also utilize your school’s career centers; there are so many programs and opportunities for students, especially black students, attending HBCU’s that should be taken advantage of. You should also do your research online for programs. UNCF (United Negro College Fund) has internships for students from all fields, including STEM.

Develop the perfect resume. Include your community service, previous work experience, skills that can be transferrable to the internship you want, research and involvement in organizations related to that particular field. Companies and organizations want to see that you are knowledgeable about the field, and have taken the extra effort to learn more.

Engage in some soul searching. You have to understand what you are passionate about. If you grossed out about blood, maybe taking an internship at a hospital’s emergency room isn’t the best idea. Be real with yourself and understand where you can seriously see yourself. Your internship should be the lens that takes a peek into your future. If your lens is a little disoriented, take time to think of what needs to be done to clear it up.

APPLY! Most summer internships have application deadlines in late winter and early spring. You must do the research and ensure you have everything in on time. Also, keep in mind that most internship programs will require a letter of recommendation, your resume, an essay explaining why you should be selected, and a copy of your transcript.

You have to be in charge of your professional development and career. And although some internships are not paid, understand that the experience that you will gain is worth more than money. Judge Greg Mathis once said, “most college students do not have the foresight to recognize that the knowledge gained and contacts made while working for nothing may soon prove their weight in gold.” An internship is definitely worth your time and effort.

Nicole A. Tinson is a Political Science Major from Los Angeles, California. She is a Junior at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Nicole has interned with the Mellon Foundation,  Superbowl XLVII, and is currently a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Emerging Leaders Intern working in the office of Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (LA-02). 

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake up! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake up!”

This was Dap’s plea in the closing scene of Spike Lee’s 1988 film School Daze.  As the character, played by acclaimed actor Laurence Fishburne, ran through the quad of the fictitious Mission College bounding in and out of dorm rooms screaming “wake up” at the top of his lungs his purpose was clear:  to rouse from slumber his friends, classmates, school faculty and anyone who would listen.  “Please, wake up,” he said.

Why? Because something in the way everyone was living had to change.

Staring Down Our Wake Up Moment

Faced with 15.9% unemployment and a 20:1 wealth gap between Caucasians and African Americans, black Americans find themselves faced with a tremendous wake up moment, only this time, we don’t have Laurence Fishburne on hand to get the movement going.

There is something to his passion and methodology, however, which we can learn from in this time of social, political and economic unrest.  Namely, education is key to our ability to change the present circumstances faced by our community.

Wealth and economic opportunity among African-Americans has always been a particularly perplexing subject. Our history in this country, confounded by the legacy of slavery and the vestiges of institutionalized racism, is no doubt a complex subject, the discussion of which often raises more questions than answers.  Why is it that although African Americans represent one of the oldest ethnic groups in this nation, surpassed only by Native Americans, black communities have always lacked the social and economic opportunities of their non-minority peers? Why do black students tend to fall dramatically behind white students when it comes to educational attainment, especially when we know that education, now more than ever, is a prerequisite to real economic opportunity in this country? Why is it that with each passing year since the civil rights movement, the socio-economic plight of the African American community has increased rather than decreased?

The questions are many, and the only ways to propel our communities beyond present circumstances is by understanding the complex history that undergirds our existence in America and re-educating ourselves about the ways to create positive socio-economic outcomes.

Recent revelations about the economic plight of African-Americans may be disappointing, but should come as no surprise given the long-standing issues faced by these communities.

We have always been unemployed at higher frequencies than other groups in this country (the exception, of course, being during slavery when all black Americans were “employed,” albeit via chattel servitude). We have always made less money than our white counterparts – current estimates point to a $0.60 on the $1.00 ratio.  And for years, our educational, thereby our economic, opportunities were diminished by segregation and the fallacy of separate but equal.

Therefore, as we forge ahead, the task at hand of improving our communities requires not that we harp on how bad things are, but that we discern proactive solutions for moving things forward.

Education Is A Catalyst for Change and the Improvement of Circumstances

With most things in this country, the achievement gaps that separate the haves from the have nots depends on one’s exposure and resources – exposure to history, to context and resources to make possible one’s personal iteration of the American dream.

Though ours beliefs about the best ways to increase exposure and resources may differ, it would seem that education, the most basic method of instilling new awareness and understanding about any subject, is a crucial yet oft-overlooked component of discussions around how we might improve the socio-economic status of African Americans in this country.

Education is the key to closing the wealth gap and to creating new economic opportunity because it takes an educated person to appreciate and comprehend market forces, forecast new trends and develop products and services to accommodate the needs of Americans and our international counterparts. Education is not so much a guarantee of success as it is a prerequisite to success.  It is through education that we can help people better understand the playing field, the odds against them and ways to develop new opportunities to overcome any challenge in their way.   With each new door that education opens the prospect for new economic opportunity is not far behind.

When we speak of education, though, we speak not of a lofty and esoteric set of principals and ideals, but of a measured three-prong approach targeted at increasing the odds of economic success for people of color.

First, we need to re-educate ourselves about the history of economics in the black community.  While it’s easy to focus on the negative, there is a long and powerful traditional of successful economic enterprise in our communities that we all too often overlook.  By affirming the positive history and helping people better understand from whence they came, we reveal a new avenue of empowerment for African Americans.

Prior to the start of the civil rights movement when we had not the opportunity to take part in mainstream commerce we were in essence forced to create and sustain our own economic universe.  Post-abolition, during the era of reconstruction, in the face of Jim Crow and enduring the realities of segregation, black communities had an insular existence in which we were self-sustaining in every sense of the word.

We were our doctors, our lawyers, our groceries, our accountants, our seamstresses and tailors, our transportation, our communications.  You name it. We did it.

Members of the community created every single good and service that was needed in the black community. We bartered with each other, we sold goods and created entire enterprises based on the immediate needs and demands of our communities, and because of that self-reliant economy we were able to survive and thrive.

The story of the rise of black enterprise in this country needs to be told and reinforced time and time again, and we should also develop a new paradigm around creating and supporting black business in the modern American landscape.

Second, we must place a greater emphasis on educating our communities.  At a time when only 54% of African Americans graduate from high school, the need to instill the basics – reading, writing, math, and science – is critically important.  Particularly when it comes to math and science, areas of competency which are essential to participation in our increasingly digital and globally competitive world, we must redouble our efforts at educational achievement if we hope to reduce the gaps in economic opportunity and wealth creation that our communities face.

Finally, it is incumbent upon us to really learn and understand how finance works and what makes a good recipe for wealth creation. Having a job and making money, though necessary to attaining wealth, will not by themselves guarantee it.  Far too many people of color are not well versed in the finer nuances of creating and growing wealth opportunities.  So, we have a dramatic new opportunity in front of us to cultivate and spread as much information about wealth creation as possible amongst our communities.

The path to recovery and true economic prosperity for black communities lays in the fierce advancement of our educational, and by extension our economic, agenda.  If we ever hope to reduce and overcome the wealth gap between African Americans and our peers we must ensure that our communities are educated in ways to create and exploit new economic opportunities.