Interns from Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED — via Coca-Cola UNITED

Recently, Coca-Cola’s UNITED hosted ten students from five local Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) for a week-long internship program.

The Program

coke giphy Ten students selected for Coca-Cola UNITED's internship program — via giphy

Founded in 1902, Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED is headquartered in Birmingham, AL. The interns spent the week at the company’s Birmingham and Montgomery offices.

The program offered firsthand experience in a range of roles available at Coca-Cola, including operations management, packaging, pricing, event planning and philanthropy.

“We are proud to invest in the future workforce of America and we’re thrilled to host these exceptional HBCU students on site. We hope the experience they’ve had this week helps them to further develop career goals and provides them with valuable perspective as they plan for their next phase in life.” -Bo Taylor, Vice President Central Region, Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED.

Pay it Forward

Female interns from Coca-Cola's UNITED internship program — via Coca-Cola UNITED

The internship experience is a part of the companywide “Pay it Forward” program, which aims to provide African-American youth with opportunities to celebrate students’ achievements and further their success.

The program represents Coca-Cola UNITED core values quite well: Quality, Excellence, Integrity and Respect, and its commitment to serving its associates, customers, consumers and communities.

Previous advocates of Coca-Cola’s Pay it Forward program include TV personality Steve Harvey and R&B star Tyrese Gibson.

selected students

IMG 0376 Ten students selected for Coca-Cola UNITED's internship program — via Coca-Cola UNITED

In February, Coca-Cola UNITED reviews applications from participating universities. In result, ten students were selected to participate based on their standout application. Here is a list of participating students:

Alabama State University: Brittany Moton & Sierra Hart.

Miles College: LilVencia Taylor & Ryan Rolax

Stillman College: Brandon Wood & Quinvarlio Kelly

Tuskegee University: Chyna Gilbert & Tifphanie Young

Talladega College: Frantz Pinet & Treyvon Brant

If you are interested in applying for the annual program, check out www.cocacolaunited.com in January 2018.

Special thanks to Coca-Cola UNITED for creating opportunities for Alabama students to become better leaders. Congratulations to the students selected for the program! We are excited to see how they positively impact our community and beyond.