ONE School is an inaugural portfolio program designed for Black creatives who have not attended advertising school. The program — hosted by The One Club for Creativity, a nonprofit that supports advertising professionals — has become the “highlight of the week” for Tarahgee Morris, a senior advertising major with a concentration in art direction. The 16-week program aims to inspire its 15 participants by having them work on ten briefs and submit an individual portfolio, all while making connections with one another and guest lecturers who work in creative industries. Despite having to balance the program, schoolwork and an internship, Morris thoroughly enjoys the program’s offerings.
ONE School is free and online, with evening classes held twice a week. The program conducts fall and spring sessions and is split into East and West coast cohorts which adhere to different timelines. ONE School East is led by Oriel Davis-Lyons, a creative director at Spotify. Rather than selecting participants strictly based on their background in advertising, the program chose each participant for their raw creative potential and ambition; Morris was no exception. He has taken on numerous professional opportunities while at Klein, including an art direction internship for Oglivy, the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program Fellow program and his current design internship with Karma Agency in Philadelphia. Although balancing all of his commitments are challenging, he is excited that The One Club has designed a unique program to learn more about creative industries from Black professionals. He is already thinking about how the lessons he is learning from the program can put him in a position to mentor young Black creatives in the future.
“Creating programs like this are really giving back to programs like this, to where I can inspire...or I can hire, or I can work with, or I can recruit, or I can mentor the next generation of creatives who look like me or who have underrepresented or intersectional identities,” Morris says.
Morris is a part of the ONE School East class with Jamal Parker, CLA ‘19. Parker is a freelance creative known for his spoken word poetry, and contributed spoken word to Temple University’s 2018 spring commencement. He decided to apply for ONE School to update his creative portfolio and learn more about advertising, which has served his other creative endeavors.
“So far I really like it. It’s a very rigorous process because portfolio schools are technically two-year programs — you have Miami ad schools and you also have schools in New York,” Parker says. “That’s all condensed within a 16-week intensive. So every single week we’re definitely coming up with new projects and listening to new people lecture.”
Joe Glennon, chair of the Advertising Department, believes that The One Club recognizes the necessity of opportunities that allow Black professionals in creative industries to flourish. Along with the other talented participants in this session of ONE School, Glennon is confident in Morris’ selection, saying “It’s really no surprise — [Morris is] an emerging creative star.”
Morris believes that young Black creatives must speak with professionals that may have faced the same obstacles that the creatives are facing now. ONE School has motivated him to reach his goals no matter what professional or personal obstacles are placed in his way.
“Don’t ever sell yourself short of your dreams. I know it sounds cliche but...advertising or just creativity overall isn’t the rich man’s game or isn’t for the most elite — it’s for everyone but sometimes it doesn’t seem like it. So sometimes [we] just have to put our best foot forward and delve into the most uncomfortable parts of ourselves in order to reach the things we wanna reach,” Morris says.
Spotify is a founding partner and Adobe is a creativity partner of ONE School. The program has also received sponsorships and resources from industry giants including Edelman, Publicis and Ogilvy.