In an unprecedented collaboration, Backbone, a Colorado-born integrated marketing agency, and Colorado Mountain College (CMC) have embarked on a multi-year partnership to create an educational and professional opportunity for one lucky student each year.
The Backbone scholarship is meant for a third or fourth-year student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in integrated media at CMC. The scholarship program covers the recipient’s tuition for one full year and includes a 12-week marketing internship at Backbone with the potential for future full-time employment.
The selection process, handled by the CMC Foundation, ensures that the scholarship goes to a deserving candidate who is also a first-generation student and is enrolled in the marketing program.
“It’s really fun for us to be able to collaborate with CMC on the integrated marketing internship and scholarship,” said Greg Williams, the president of Backbone. “As a company, we work with a lot of brands in the outdoor space, and we’ve seen demographically in Colorado that participant numbers are including a much more diverse audience than what has typically been linked to outdoor activities over time. So, when CMC developed its four-year degree for integrated marketing, we were perfectly aligned in terms of values.”
The inaugural recipient of the program, Juliana Garcia, is a third-year integrated media student at CMC and already holds an associate degree in graphic design. Garcia balances a full-time academic schedule with a part-time job. But the busy schedule doesn’t phase her; and she makes time for poetry, drawing and fly fishing whenever possible. She began her internship at Backbone last week.
“My post-grad goal is to work at a creative marketing agency, so the fact that I get to develop my skills and preview that career path through this internship at Backbone is something I really value and appreciate. I just started my internship, so I’m excited to dabble in various departments and widen my skill set in each,” she told the Sopris Sun. “I feel incredibly honored to be CMC and Backbone’s first scholarship recipient. I’m already learning so much and I feel incredibly supported by my CMC professors and the staff at Backbone.”
Derek Johnston, a CMC professor, emphasized the significance of this partnership providing real-world application to classroom theory. “One of the greatest things that we can do for students is having industry partners that can present to them real-world working experiences,” he stated.
The program offers a hands-on internship experience where recipients, like Garcia, will dive into the intricacies of marketing while being mentored by Backbone’s staff. They can try out different roles to discover where their strengths lie, identify their interests and further build on the foundation they’ve been learning in the classroom.
The partnership is also a strategic one for Backbone, because young media-savvy professionals can help navigate the world’s evolving media landscape.
“Media consumption habits are changing. TikTok is so relevant today for the next generation of customers,” explained Williams. “There’s so much information online these days that anyone can be a self-directed learner through podcasts and free classes you can take on Google or Meta. If you continue to stay intellectually curious, you can keep up with that change.”
Fun fact: Johnston and Williams have known each other for many years. Johnston even coached Williams’ son’s football team. They both remarked on how exciting it is to finally collaborate professionally.
“We knew that our professional worlds had some parallels to them. Once we got the details worked out and finally formed a partnership, it was amazing. One of the greatest things about living in the Roaring Fork Valley is it’s just a small community where people know each other and are motivated to make a difference and do positive things. I think this is just a small example of the type of community that we live in,” Johnston concluded.
For more details on the Backbone Scholarship for Integrated Media, visit www.tinyurl.com/CMCBackbone For details about CMC’s Bachelor of Applied Science in Integrated Media, visit www.tinyurl.com/Media-CMC