By A.J. Dugger III
FRANKLIN, TN — Former NFL Linebacker Dhani Jones and 100 Black Men of America worked with Nissan to host The Nissan Resume Challenge at the Nissan North America Headquarters in Franklin, TN on February 19 and 20. The Nissan Resume Challenge is part of Nissan’s African American community outreach efforts. “This program leverages our partnership with the 100 Black Men organization and their mentees by offering select African-American high juniors and seniors important career exposure and development,” said Rob Wilson, Nissan’s director of Diversity and Inclusion.
“We believe this is an excellent example of Black History month in action – recognizing the past but preparing our young people for the future.”
This is the third year of the Nissan Resume Challenge, but the first time that the program took place outside of Nashville and the first time Nissan partnered with 100 Black Men of America. The program also ran during Black History Month in Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL and Jackson, MS.
The Nissan Resume Challenge included guidance in writing resumes, preparation on how to perform on job interviews, and a fun time at Nissan’s headquarters. 100 Black Men’s members worked with students individually to develop and submit resumes.
The Nissan employees reviewed the resumes and picked 15 to 20 students for 30-minute student interviews. Nissan then chose three to five students from each participating town from the interview pool for the conference in Franklin. A total of 27 students attended, four of whom arrived from Nashville.
Former NFL Linebacker Dhani Jones
The conference included a tour of the Nissan Plant and mentoring on engineering careers by African-American engineers. The students also got the chance to job-shadow Nissan professionals for half the day, participate with speaker Derek Young and musician Shannon Sanders in Nissan’s annual African-American Heritage Program and have an extensive chat with Jones.
“About a third of our students were interested in engineering,” said Wilson. “Nissan employees talked to their job-shadowers about how to be successful in high school, pitfalls to avoid in college and how their decisions during their high school and college education help develop them for their jobs at Nissan.
They also talked about college readiness, how to manage finances, etc, which is helpful as a lot of these students are first-generation college students in their families.”
The participating students were not nervous around Jones or intimidated by his presence.
“They were absolutely enthralled by what he had to say,” said Wilson. “He talked about his background in high school and college, the challenges as a high school kid, his experience at University of Michigan and how he wasn’t necessarily ready to fit in with the structure there. Since his football career ended, he’s become a phenomenal success story for how to prepare yourself for life after sports. He helps students understand how to remain focused and committed on academics while pursuing dreams.”
During his career, Jones played for several teams including Michigan Wolverines, The New York Giants, The Philadelphia Eagles and The Cincinnati Bengals. He is currently the host of the Nissan GT Academy television series on the FX network.
The Nashville students to participate included Aaron Nixon (Pearl Cohn Entertainment Arts Magnet High School) Joshua Bond (Hillsboro) Christopher Jones II (Hillwood) and Reseun McClendon. (Hillsboro)