Credo Beauty goes to school.

For its fourth annual Credo for Change accelerator program, the retailer has partnered with the Fashion Institute of Technology for the primary time to supply students enrolled within the cosmetics and fragrance marketing program profession mentorship and networking access.

“After we began Credo for Change, we were very focused on where the industry was underrepresented from a brand founder perspective,” said program manager Shibisha Johnson. “Now, as we begin to take into consideration not only who’s on the shelf, but who’s within the office, this [partnership] was the natural next place to go along with this work.”

The 13-week program will kick off July 7, offering 12 Black, Indigenous, people of color students access to speaker sessions, internship seats and one-on-one mentoring.

“The aspect of this system that resonated with me probably the most is that it isn’t just focused on helping students construct a brand — we wish students to know there are these other opportunities for his or her talents,” said Nicole Finigan Ndzibah, executive director of the Social Justice Center at FIT.

Johnson added: “We all know that folks wish to select their very own destiny, so we wish to provide them the leadership skills to do this and reduce the quantity of loneliness that comes from having to figure it out by yourself.”

This 12 months’s cohort will hear from quite a lot of merchants, marketing experts and “behind-the-scenes movers and shakers,” Johnson said.

“This cohort, in my humble opinion, will reflect what is feasible in beauty,” she said. “After I stumbled upon beauty, I did a whole lot of fumbling around at midnight. My hope is that the people who find themselves coming in to the industry now feel like there’s solid footing underneath them, and that they’re welcome here.”

Credo for Change was established in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, and has supported greater than 200 brand founders. While this 12 months’s speaker lineup has yet to be shared, previous speakers included Tower 28’s Amy Liu; 510Media cofounder and artistic director Mashama Thompson, and “Shark Tank” alum Sandra Velasquez, who founded the bathtub and body care brand Nopalera.

Student applications for this 12 months’s program can be open until June 20.