ATLANTA -

Black Automotive Media Group recently played a key role in launching an intiative that resulted in launching automotive media internships for North Carolina Central University and Clark University students. The program behind these internships — "Driving Force" — will work to offer multi-media career development to undergraduates at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU).

The program will also work to "showcase African-American scholastic talent to automobile companies," the organization said in a news release. These internships are for HBCU students that are looking to cover or work in the auto industry from a media, marketing and business perspective.

 BAMG partnered with automaker Stellantis to launch the "Driving Force" program at NCCU this fall. 

"An important part of our longstanding, enterprise-wide commitment to diversity and inclusion is our investment in diverse people and communities sharing our success and expanding access to future opportunities," Stellantis North America director of diversity and inclusion Lottie Holland said in a news release. 

The program is off to a rolling start, with the founding members of BAMG having already recruited 15 students to participate in the 10-week virtual field internship at NCCU. This means participating in mentoring sessions, writing classes, video and photography production, and media courses. In its second year, Driving Force will work to expose interns to careers as journalists, videographers, marketers, publicists, digital media associates, and social media influencers within the auto industry. And students will get the chance to showecase their own work on various platforms during the program, including vehicle evaluations, video advertising projects, and content creation and hosting. 

"We are excited that Stellantis and the Black Automotive Media Group have engaged with NCCU students in providing this unique opportunity,” said Keisha Williams, director of marketing/communications at the  NCCU School of Business. "The exposure to industry received through this experience will be of great significance to both their professional and academic lives."

How did this program get underway? It evolved following discussions between automakers and BAMG in an effort to increase programming for "deserving but often neglected schools."

These conversations had an impact on improving the diversity and inclusion of African American journalists covering the industry, and the discussion evolved to help prepare the next generation of automotive media professionals.

“Possibilities! When BAMG visited NCCU’s campus to present our students with new possibilities and career development choices, they responded with eagerness and enthusiasm," said Brett Chambers, who is a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication. "Correspondingly, they now have a keen understanding of the power of networking, so I look forward to this internship representing productive efforts for all parties involved."

The program is led by the following media experts: Kimatni D. Rawlins, publisher of Automotive Rhythms Communications, Greg Morrison from Bumper2Bumpertv, auto expert Marcus Amick and a group of Black automotive media journalists and publishers. 

"Our collaboration with Stellantis and North Carolina Central University marks the fourth diversity-focused and academic program for BAMG that allows us to extend new pathways to HBCU students," BAMG founding member Kimatni Rawlins said. "An internship with automaker Jaguar 25 years ago deeply influenced my decisions, ultimately leading to comprehensive experience and an extensive automotive career. Thus, creating similar opportunities for African American interns with a strong interest in this field represents another opportunity to uplift our kids."

Clark Atlanta University 

General Motors and the Black Automotive Group partnered to launch the same initiative at Clark Atlanta University, in an effort to provide HBCU students with multimedia career development while increasing automobile industry fairness and equity. 

"General Motors is proud to partner with BAMG in support of these incredible students at Clark Atlanta University. We are excited to get to know the interns, learn from them, and help contribute to their professional journey,” GM executive director of product and brand communications Joe Jacuzzi said in a news release. 

This partnership has been created with the Department of Mass Media Arts, a division of Communication Arts at Clark Atlanta, for students interested in covering the auto industry.

Driving Force also recruited 15 students from Clark Atlanta to participate in the 10-week, virtual, field-credit internship, this time supported by GM. 

Interns will showcase their "newfangled work skills" on various platforms at the end of the internship. They will also liaise with GM communications executives, designers and product planners through a series of presentations and interviews.

Clark Atlanta said said the internship program's mission parallells that of the school's Department of Mass Media Arts, which works to provide students with rigorous academic and professional training and a strong liberal arts education.

The department's curriculum is designed to prepare students for careers in mass media as well as entertainment, politics, personnel management, advertising, education, business, public relations, public service, speech arts, social media management, content curation, digital filmmaking and civil service.

"We continue to move with momentum to ensure our scholars at Clark Atlanta University have access to a world-class education and that mission includes offering initiatives that focus on technology and enhancing their analytical thinking skills," Clark Atlanta president George French, Jr., said in a news release. "We want our students to exercise their creativity, be competitive in the world of technology and be included in the technology career pipeline. Initiatives such as this bring them one step closer to that goal."