The lack of discovering qualified employees has been the main challenge facing companies in Greenville. So, the Greenville Chamber created LaunchGVL to respond to this challenge by closing the skills gap and discovering talent for the workforce. The beauty of LaunchGVL is that the program carries out an important task of connecting local students to local job opportunities while also personally connecting with Greenville students to transform their interests into careers. While the program has broad goals of furthering economic mobility and developing Greenville into a globally competitive economy, we would like to take a moment to see how LaunchGVL has helped students grow into the adults they are today.

Chloe Penaflor

Chloe’s internship was at the Greenville County School District Office during her senior year of high school in 2020. Chloe was “curious” to work in communications, and she wanted the internship to gain experience in the field. With an internship so close with her teachers and fellow students, Chloe saw Greenville from a different perspective that allowed her to meet people with “diverse backgrounds and stories.” Also, her employer at the GCS District Office was so impressed with Chloe’s hardworking spirit that she brought her along in her changing roles at City Hall in Greenville as a summer communications intern. Chloe’s internship shows how the program goes beyond LaunchGVL and provides unique experiences to grow their career.

Chloe is now entering her sophomore year at the University of South Carolina as a mass communications major and film and media studies minor.

Kritika Ravichander

The Greenville Chamber employed Kritika as an Economic Competitiveness & Leadership Development Intern during the summer of 2019. At the beginning of the internship, Kritika’s interests were gaining real-world experience and networking opportunities, which “maintaining communication” has been one of Kritika’s main takeaways from the internship. Not only did she gain experience that helped her choose a career path, but Kritika also learned various skills in networking, communication, project management, and time management to apply in her future job positions. 

Kritika will attend the University of Pittsburgh Honors College as a psychology and computer science major.

Jay Smith

Also, at the Greenville Chamber, Jay was a marketing intern in 2018 and was interested in gaining some real-world experience to help towards his plan of owning a business after college and to see if he would enjoy a career in marketing. Not only did the internship encourage him to change his major to marketing, but Jay also changed the perspective he had of himself and Greenville. Jay knew he had artistic skills, but the internship allowed him to explore other options and see he was talented in other ways. His internship also provided experience to apply towards managing and marketing his business. Being an intern at an organization with “Greenville’s best intentions at heart” changed Jay’s perspective to see the “hidden gems” throughout the “beautiful city.” 

Currently, Jay is a marketing major and fine arts minor at Greenville Technical College along with fulfilling his dreams of owning a business.

These students’ testimonies show how the LaunchGVL internships fulfilled the program’s purpose of connecting high schoolers to local job opportunities but point out a meaningful message of the personal growth and perspective gained from the internship. The program provides each student with a one-of-a-kind opportunity to explore various jobs that also offer skills to grow students into talented adults. While each student gained a unique experience to explore their career interests, they share the underlying message of helping them transition into working adults and develop their character. Through these stories, LaunchGVL provides local opportunities to eager students wanting experience in their desired career while growing “and keep growing afterwards.”

Learn more about the LaunchGVL program here.