The Summer of Dreams

My MAIP 2021 Experience Pt. 1

This is a story all about how my life got twist turned upsidedown lol jk. My name is Jazsaii Danner and this is the story of how I am currently living out my dreams! The year 2020 came with a lot of disappointment for the whole world but I decided to make the best of the pandemic and work on my self-development going into my senior year of college at Cal State Long Beach.

I participated in a two-week ad competition called Indoor Recess as a project manager. (best decision of my life) I had some amazing teammates that were doing MAIP and encouraged me to apply the following year. MAIP is the Multicultural Advertising Internship Program and they help multicultural students and recent grads break into advertising. I figured I had nothing to lose so I applied. I’m sure you know where this is going lol. After a couple of months of waiting, I got an email confirming that I was a finalist. (yall should have seen the way I danced around my house and cried!) All I had to do was wait until draft day to be selected by an agency to officially become a MAIP fellow. Upon getting selected by Digitas North America for project management I had officially become a MAIP Fellow and instantly gained over 400 besties.

I’m calling this my summer of dreams. I got into MAIP and secured a full-time job/internship for the summer. I did a TEDx talk with the University of Illinois at Chicago (that I wrote in a week), won some awards with my student orgs at CSULB, all while having two other internships and five classes.

MAIP has been such an incredible opportunity for me this summer. I have learned so much about the marketing/advertising industry through the virtual spring training, maip labs, and my internship at Digitas. I have learned so much from my fellow MAIPers and will cherish being the unofficial project manager for our cohort.

One of my most favorite things about MAIP is my coach, Taylor Fortier. I have never had a mentor that was so intentional about helping me and staying in contact with me. She has gone above a beyond her scope of work by looking over my summer project briefs, giving feedback, and helping us get to the finish line. Which we actually did become a finalist for a MAIP summer project.

Since the world is my oyster, I’m open to relocating, being remote, or in person at a company to start the next chapter of my life making me both nervous and excited. I’m ready to hit the ground running and become the best project manager that I know how to be while shattering ceilings for BIPOC in advertising. If you’re looking for a champion multicultural junior/associate project manager to join your team, hit me up! I have the skills, the work ethic, and the ambition; I just need the opportunity!!!