Demetrius Porter
When the COVID-19 pandemic created employment and housing challenges for Demetrius, a former teacher and media producer from Chicago’s West Side, he recalls wondering, “What am I going to do next?”
Jamurai Soldier came to Olive-Harvey College when he was considering a career change. The PepsiCo Foundation Uplift Scholarship is helping him switch gears.
He began studying supply chain and logistics. A lot of the skills he learned and things he liked about retail carried over to a career in supply chain.
His time at Olive-Harvey also led him to interview for the PepsiCo internship and eventually applied for and was accepted as a PepsiCo Foundation Uplift Scholars.
“Being a Pepsi Uplift Scholarship recipient, the money is there on the first day or before the first day of class so you can feel secure and get prepared,” Jamurai said. “That takes a lot of stress off from what can already be a stressful time.”
He also put his classroom knowledge to work as a summer operations intern for Carl Buddig Meat Company in Homewood, Illinois.
In the role of junior analyst, Jamurai earned $20 an hour as he analyzed data, created pivot tables and charts, and interviewed line supervisors, ultimately determining if the continuous improvement theories they were discussing were viable. At OHC, Jamurai has been stacking his credentials, starting with a Forklift Operations and Safety Basic Certificate, then a Supply Chain Management and Logistics Basic Certificate as he works toward his Associate of Applied Arts in Supply Chain Management and Logistics.
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