The One Club for Creativity, the world's foremost non-profit organization recognizing creative excellence in advertising and design, has announced the first-ever group of 15 talented students accepted into the East Coast fall session for ONE School, a free portfolio program for young Black creatives.

Students were selected based on their raw creativity, passion and commitment so as not to discourage those with no prior knowledge of advertising.

The inaugural class for ONE School East, starting September 8, are Trey Alston, Van Leigh Armer, Trey Bradley, Elizabeth Culton, Nicole Francois, Laura Eley, Asia Irvin, Mutaurwa Mapondera, Tarahgee Morris, Jamal Parker, Bárbara Polance, Temiloluwa Thomas, Tyler West, Miko White and Jasmine Williams.

True to the school’s mission to bring new Black talent into the industry, the first class represents a wide array of creative backgrounds, including a spoken-word performer, textile artist, animators, photographers, writers, an AI developer and UX designer, videographer, music journalist and teacher.

ONE School is run by Oriel Davis-Lyons, an award-winning creative director at Spotify, as part of The One Club’s Professional Development programming.

“Looking through all the applications confirmed to me just how much Black creative talent is out there that we, as an industry, miss out on because we rely on the same pipelines year after year,” said Davis-Lyons, “While it wasn’t easy to get to 15, the class we have represents such a diverse set of talents and perspectives, I can’t wait to see what they come up with over the next 16 weeks.”