Nicholas Love is creating a haven for industry leaders and future change makers.
The Michigan native is a product of Grambling State University, an institution that gave him a chance after graduating from high school with a 2.17 GPA, he told AFROTECH™.
He experienced several coincidental moments before he enrolled. While waiting for his grandmother to pick him up from track practice, he stumbled upon a magazine in the hallway, and the first page was about the HBCU. It also mentioned ESPN, which later became his first job out of college as a talent and video editor for digital media. When he returned home and turned on the television to BET, Grambling State University was featured again.
“It was just a lot of synergy for me,” Love shared with AFROTECH™.
Grambling State University opened doors for Love, and his involvement with its band led to opportunities such as a scholarship, an appearance on “Jeopardy!”, and a six-month internship with NBC Sports in New York. He also interned with ESPN in 2006 before securing an full-time role.
“Grambling for me represented a second chance. A second chance to demonstrate what I was capable of. I worked at a variety of places. That is something that I’ll never forget. I feel like I’m forever in debt to the university,” Love, expressed.
At the HBCU he earned a degree in mass communications in 2006 and became a first-generation college graduate.
Mixing Industry Experience And Academia
Love continued to give back to the university in a variety of ways as his career progressed.
He had a nearly four-year position at G&S Business Communications, starting as the director of social media, per his LinkedIn. He later rose to VP of digital marketing, tasked with building a digital center of excellence, and served on the agency’s diversity task force focused on shareholder commitment and accountability. He also managed strategic partnerships, which led to him negotiate a deal that could have resulted in a $250,000 donation to Grambling and pro bono marketing services, he shared.
“I was helping students report from a news perspective, develop podcasts, or create commercials…and really merging industry experience into the classroom to strengthen their portfolios, their career readiness, and hire-ability. Many of my students immediately acquired local reporter gigs and things of that nature,” he shared with AFROTECH™.
In 2024, the College of Business at Grambling State tapped him to teach principles of advertising, international marketing, and marketing management. He has helped students with certifications, leaned into his network to help the university administer certifications for free, and has pulled in members of his team as guest lecturers to integrate teachings around AI.
“As we see the industry continuing to evolve, marketers have to be focused on marketing the robots and things of that nature in the future. Those type of learnings typically aren’t happening at HBCUs, and if they are, it’s only at a select few. I was very intentional on wanting to apply pressure intellectually so that students could put themselves in position to be very competitive upon graduation,” Love mentioned.
Dope Thinkers Only Conference
Love is also launching the inaugural “Dope Thinkers Only Conference” at Grambling State University from Sept. 11-12 to engage the next generation of change makers. According to the conference website, students, faculty, staff, and industry practitioners can explore tracks in marketing, communications, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Speakers will include Luke Cooper, Latimer Ventures’ Founding Managing Partner; Kris Wright, Jordan Brand Footwear VP; and Tina Davis, EMPIRE President and and Grambling’s graduate.
Love hopes to bring the conference to three other HBCU campuses and eventually to Ghana. In doing so, he hopes the conference can be positioned as “a facilitator of global relationships and global partnerships, collectively with HBCUs, as opposed to what I believe is currently a siloed crab in a bucket mentality approach,” he told AFROTECH™.
