Part of an ongoing commitment to youth employment and economic mobility, Bank of America’s Student Leaders program provides valuable civic, social, and business leadership skills. The annual summer program helps prepare a diverse pipeline of young students to be successful in the workforce through leadership training and work experience. With an objective to connect the next generation with pathways to success, the program equips students to serve, inspire, and change.
First launched in 2004, the program accepts a diverse cohort of students and includes eight weeks of hands-on experience with locally-based non-profits to develop workforce skills and better understand how non-profits achieve their mission. This community engagement opportunity provides students with the ability to contribute to meaningful projects and hone their outreach, communication, and problem-solving abilities. Students also participate in networking events, seminars, and workshops during a week-long, fully-funded Student Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C.
Applicants of the program hail from diverse backgrounds, but are united by their drive and commitment to create change in their communities. The social campaign spotlights this drive and commitment – from the importance of access to opportunity to what motivates them to create change in their communities and how they hope to turn their passion into action.
The program convenes 300 high school juniors and seniors from diverse communities nationwide. As a nationwide effort, amplification of the program - including application distribution, selection, and announcement – required programmatic coordination between enterprise social media handles, executive leadership handles, and local teammates across social media platforms.
To effectively recruit applicants for the program, we created content across our enterprise channels, pre-drafted content for teammates to share with their networks, and customized content options for local bank teammates.
Additionally, the 2023 Student Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. included a return to in-person programming. The weeklong event was a pivotal moment in capturing reactive/candid content and following along with the experiences of the students. For many of these students, it was their first visit to Washington, D.C., for others, their first time venturing out of their own state. To take advantage of their time together in our nation’s capital, students had full days where they visited the National Mall, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Capitol Hill, and the American Red Cross headquarters. They heard from prominent leaders within the Bank of America organization, as well as external prominent leaders, attended seminars, and participated in breakout sessions. There were limited windows to capture direct-to-camera content but our team identified opportunities to interview students and capture tiny mic content without interrupting scheduled programming. We also ensured proper releases, which can be challenging for any project, but we were able to facilitate consent for 300 students, countless speakers, and venues with a seamless process.
The last piece of our project includes the recruitment of next year’s candidates. We leveraged our large network of employees to share pre-drafted content highlighting the 2023 Student Leaders, their passion to serve, inspire, and change, and the wealth of opportunities available for the next generation of student leaders.
Leading up to and over the course of the week on the ground in Washington D.C, we were able to share a number of impactful social media posts across many of Bank of America's social properties - Instagram, X and LinkedIn. We also engaged a number of Executives who were on the ground with the students, encouraging them to share their perspective.
Two posts on Twitter generated nearly 60K impressesions\, while two Instagram posts generated nearly 3k likes.
As we look to recruitement for next year, the 20th Anniversary of the program, we'll be leveraging professional video interviews captured on the ground to share compelling content as applications open.
