When Jasmin Jackson stepped into Coca-Cola’s inaugural “Start Your Legacy” externship program, she didn’t just find an internship — she discovered a career-defining opportunity. Now, as Coca-Cola launches its newest HBCU initiative “The World Is Yours,” the Delaware State University business marketing student spoke to rolling out about how these programs are transforming opportunities for Black college students.
How did you hear about “The World Is My Yard”?
So, my mentor that I gained from the “Start Your Legacy” HBCU program, Ms. Renee, actually introduced me to this platform. So, that’s kind of how I got introduced to it, and I was just able to explore on my own. I used my school email to sign up, and I was able to explore and have access to everything.
How was your experience with the “Start Your Legacy” program?
My experience during the “Start Your Legacy” externship was definitely a life-changing one. I was able to connect with multiple students from across HBCUs all over the country. I also gained access to my amazing mentors, and I was able to learn how to tackle a problem because we had a case competition that we did. So, I was able to work on that while balancing school. Honestly, I gained a lot from that program; it was definitely a lot of invaluable experience. I feel like participating in that externship … enabled me to have the confidence to kind of do anything.
What are some of the things you learned during the externship?
I would say some of the things that I learned were to just be very thorough, to do your best and just prepare as much as possible. One of my mentors, Ms. Tenille, would help me go through my presentation and just fine-pick at all the details. So, that kind of made me pay more attention to the small things and even prepared me more for like the case competition and presentation. I learned to go above and beyond and prepare for extra questions that I may be asked or just thinking of different ways to add value to my presentations. So, I would say I basically learned to just be very thorough and over-prepare. It’s better to be over-prepared than to be under-prepared. Always put your best foot forward.
Did the externship help you become more passionate about your career choice?
Yeah, I would say it definitely helped me become more passionate about marketing. Just throughout the research and the tasks that we were given, I was able to discover that marketing is more than just advertising and fun, exciting pictures. Like, it’s really about understanding the consumers’ behaviors and what they want. So, that kind of just helped me become more interested in it. I had to put together a story during one of my presentations — and yeah, I really enjoyed it. Like, looking at data and stuff like that, and putting it into a story and using that information to tell people something of value. So, I would say it definitely made me more passionate about marketing, for sure.
What do you hope to see out of “The World Is My Yard”The program?
I hope to see students just really connecting with each other and also taking advantage of the opportunities. I think this platform is a great platform for students to take advantage of. So, I just hope that students really apply themselves and take advantage of the opportunities that is being presented to them.
What’s your favorite thing about your HBCU, Delaware State?
I would say what makes me enjoy attending Delaware State is honestly just being around students who are just striving to do their best. Like, a lot of people that I know at my school and even just students that I’ve … met through the externship that I did with Coca-Cola. Everybody’s working towards achieving something bigger; nobody is just settling for average. Everybody wants to do something bigger.
