N.C. A&T, Live Nation Urban and Chris Paul Family Foundation Partner for Internship Pipeline

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Feb. 26, 2020) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Live Nation Urban and Piedmont Triad native and Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Chris Paul, through the Chris Paul Family Foundation, have teamed up to establish a formalized internship pipeline between the university and the company.

The partnership supports a new course focused on entertainment, media and sports for students in the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics and Department of Journalism and Mass Communication in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, which was introduced by Paul and Harvard Business School professor Anita Elberse, Ph.D.

The course, Special Topics in Management, mirrors the class Paul and Elberse demonstrated in partnership with the Deese College on the campus to about 200 students in September.

“We are grateful for the generosity of Chris Paul and Live Nation Urban in providing these tremendous opportunities for our college,” said Kevin James, Ph.D., Deese College dean. “Our students have been very excited to be part of this experience as they are being introduced to a whole new world of opportunity in an active and engaging way.”

Paul – who found out about Elberse from his friend, fellow NBA superstar Dwayne Wade, and took her class in 2016 – said his goal was to make the course a permanent offering at N.C. A&T.

“Access through education helps level the playing field and true leadership comes from knowledge,” Paul said. “I’m looking forward to expanding the partnership with N.C. A&T and Live Nation Urban and seeing the future results of our efforts.”

“One of my goals for Live Nation Urban has always been to introduce young African American future executives to the live music Industry,” said Shawn Gee, president of Live Nation Urban. “We are disproportionately underrepresented in this space, and it will take programs like these and partners like Chris and N.C. A&T to help change that narrative.”

As part of their commitment to introducing these HBCU students and future executives to the live music industry, Live Nation Urban is offering multiple internship opportunities this spring and summer. These include opportunities with some of their festival platforms like Broccoli City Festival in Washington, D.C., and Roots Picnic in Philadelphia to learn the ins and outs of developing and producing large music festivals as well as opportunities at Live Nation Urban in Los Angeles providing first-hand exposure to the industry.