Amplifying DEI in Communications: Introducing the Grasslands Diversity-in-Marketing Internship

It’s my pleasure to introduce you to the Grasslands Diversity-in-Marketing Internship, a deeply personal endeavor for myself and my colleagues. Our goal with this program is to change the face of marketing and deepen the diversity within our own agency, and the marcom industry as a whole.

This unique opportunity is open to any students or recent grads who self-identify as members of an historically underrepresented group in marketing, public relations and communications—spanning LGBTQIA+ communities and BIPOC—who are interested in pursuing a career in natural products and wellness communications, including cannabis marketing and cannabis PR. These marketing and PR internships will pay a competitive hourly wage and include a housing stipend.

Learn more about the Grasslands Diversity-in-Marketing Internship on the Grasslands’ Careers page. 

This is a full-circle moment for me. In 1995, I was approaching high school graduation with the uncertainty of not knowing where I was going next—when I got word I had secured a DEI-focused internship at the Rocky Mountain News. The internship would provide me paid full-time work as a journalist, hands-on training in a large newsroom and relationships that would help me after college graduation—a big deal for a lower-middle class Indigenous kid being raised by a single mother. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but that internship would change my life forever.

The Rocky’s leadership recognized their responsibility to introduce people of color to careers in journalism, and after 20-plus years at newspapers, I’m still thankful for their purposeful dedication to representation. And now it’s my turn to make a difference—to give underrepresented communities the kind of transformative experience that could open new doors for them and elevate their professional potential in an industry that desperately needs their voices, their ideas, their perspectives.

My colleagues and I—who have a solid track record of hiring previous interns to full-time positions—cannot wait to get started. Thank you in advance for forwarding this blog to anyone who should know about this marketing internship.

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Ricardo