Soooo I been quite about this for about a year now and it's time I told yall this story. I wasn't hire because of my race at an agency called See.Spark.Go in Athens.

So I was looking for a summer internship last year to do around my study abroad trip. I found out See.Spark.Go was taking summer interns. When I was doing my research, I saw their staff and it's filled while all white people. Not a drop of color.

I still applied because I need the money and the experience. Advertising and Public Relations is a very white dominated field and Black people only make up 5%.

I got an email from them saying that I didn't meet their minimum GPA requirement. A lot of my teachers in Grady told me that was a BS answer as they hurting their business more than helping it if they are going have GPA requirement.

In the AdPR Industry, companies value more experience than education. A lot of people in the industry did not even go to college. Companies do not do GPA as a requirement because your basing everything in the classroom and not what they have done outside the classroom.

Two of my friends did get an invite to their open house. I told them how I was very suspicious that my race had to do with it because it was an all-white agency. They told me they will tell me what the demographics of candidates look like.

Later that evening, they told me how much I LUCKED UP!! At the open house, there was only ONE BIPOC. That girl was asian but she could past off as white.

During the open house, the owner even came out and told them about how he use to love Nike, but when they "went a different direction" and he stop supporting them.

I easily put 2 and 2 together and realized that my race had to do something with the reason why I didn't move forward. They knew what I look like because I sent in a visual piece about myself.

I keep this experience only with my closest friends. When I was on AdPR Connection e-board, when the name See.Spark.Go came up, another black women on the board start up said "that's agency is very racist".

I was shook because I never told her my experience and she already knew what was up. Another confirmation that I what I was feeling was right feeling.

So I simple doing this tell all because IT'S NOT OKAY FOR A SMALL MOM AND POP AGENCY TO SLIDE UNDERNEATH THE RADAR DURING A MOMENT LIKE THIS. We are holding big holding agencies accountable right now, we should do the same for small shops.

No more "but that's who they are talk" and " they hire who they know". Are yall going to be okay not having diverse voices and perspectives within your work? That you are going to fall behind once diversity is the standard and the norm for the AdPR Industry.

Also, UGA AdPR community, stop having a high standard for them when they have discriminated people in the past. I am not the first, but hopefully I'll be their last.