Pure Positivity: Arnika Frazier-Jackson Details…
As HBCU Homecoming season continues, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is constant to equip younger people with the instruments, networks, and alternatives they need to thrive. For HBCU college students, in specific, that means applications designed to put together them for the aggressive world of skilled development, and Arnika Frazier-Jackson is telling BOSSIP all about it.
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The director of Student Professional Development Programs at UNCF leads the Panda Cares Scholars Program, a dynamic suite of initiatives that offers college students hands-on expertise and career-ready abilities. Under her steerage, this system connects HBCU college students with company giants, serving to them transition confidently from classroom to boardroom.
“It’s about giving our students a seat at the table. They’re not just shadowing. They’re producing, creating, and showing the next generation how to do it too,” the proud FAMU Rattler told BOSSIP.
In specific, she’s highlighting the Disney UNCF Scholars Program.
Now in its thirteenth 12 months, the partnership gives scholarships, mentorship, and internships to HBCU college students in careers in leisure, media, and content creation. Jackson performed a key function in developing this system’s curriculum and serving to Disney and other companions perceive scholar wants and aspirations.
Through these internships, college students gain publicity to a big selection of company roles, from HR and advertising to law and journalism, and even content creation. Jackson emphasizes that interns are anticipated to produce, not just observe, cultivating a mindset of accountability and influence. The program has since expanded to embrace initiatives with FX, Andscape, and National Geographic, offering alternatives in sports activities journalism, directing, producing, and factual storytelling.
“The Walt Disney Company is such a great partner because they understand being able to give access and opportunity,” Jackson told BOSSIP. “In the beginning, the program was really created to help relieve financial barriers for students attending HBCUs.”
As conversations with college students advanced, so did this system.
“We began listening to that college students actually wished to have the opportunity to get their foot in the door or at least have some sort of engagement with leaders within the company,” she said. “So they started an internship program. And now we’re in that cohort; and I fit in because we actually worked to develop the program as it stands now. I was on that team to cultivate the partnership, build the curriculum, and help the partners understand what the students’ needs and aspirations are.”
What started as business-focused internships in departments like HR, PR, advertising, expertise acquisition, and law, soon expanded to embrace content creation and journalism.
And once HBCU college students obtained through the door, Jackson says, they made it rely.
“Our students got in there and showed up and showed out,” she said. “They weren’t just shadowing an executive or a team, they were working on projects and coming out with some phenomenal things.”
That excellence led to even more alternatives. “Because of the work students were doing, we were able to open up partnerships like ESPN’s Rhoden Fellows Program,” said Jackson. “That’s for students interested in sports journalism and telling stories through the lens of the HBCU experience.”
The collaboration with FX is another spotlight, constructed on the legacy of the late John Singleton.
“That program was created to show students what it means to be a screenwriter, how to develop as a producer, and what a director actually does,” she says. “Students get a mentor with FX, and now the students selected will be able to go to L.A. in 2026 to the FX sound stage and shadow someone that works there. They’re even building the program based on what the students’ interests are — which I think is phenomenal.”
National Geographic has also joined in, giving college students the possibility to grow to be “factual storytellers”; creators who use real-world narratives to showcase their skills.
“To be able to go from one internship within the business unit to now expanding to a whole suite of programs really speaks to the understanding of the partner,” Jackson told BOSSIP, “and their commitment to providing access and opportunity to students attending HBCUs.”
According to Jackson, college students who need to apply ought to embrace their genuine selves and leverage their distinctive strengths. She believes that GPA just isn’t the only measure of readiness, and that professionalism, initiative, and results-oriented pondering often matter more in touchdown alternatives. By teaching college students on networking, building a strong resume, and quantifying their achievements, she ensures they’re totally ready to excel in the aggressive workforce.
Her strategy mirrors the teachings she realized at FAMU.
“While it is yes, about being able to have the education, and I feel like you get the best education at our HBCUs because the expectations are so high, but it’s also being able to help them with those soft skills that are needed to exceed and excel during now in the workforce,” said Jackson. “Because their competition is no longer their peers. Their competition is folks that have been in industry for 20 or 30 years. And so we want to make sure that we always provide them with something that gets them over and beyond the end of the race.”
UNCF’s imaginative and prescient is clear: put together the next era of HBCU leaders not just for jobs, but for significant careers, and with the Disney UCNF Scholars Program, fostering networks, offering mentorship, and offering real-world experiences, they’re opening doorways that lead from the best of seven hills to the heights of skilled success.
How To Apply
The Disney UNCF Scholars Program is open to underrepresented rising faculty juniors, ideally enrolled full-time at an HBCU, across broad fields of research such as movie, tv, hospitality management, journalism, media manufacturing, and digital media. Applications are open until October 31, 2025, at 11:59 PM EST. Interested college students can apply at uncf.org and discover further info on Instagram at @uncfspdp and LinkedIn at UNCF Student Professional Development Programs.
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