LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawke Media, one of the fastest-growing digital marketing consultancies in the nation, has teamed up with South Los Angeles organization Made In South LA (MISLA) and MARTY, "Making a Reality That's Yours," to form FlyForward Academy, the first digital marketing academy in the city of LA. Running for the first time ever during the fall, FlyForward Academy is wrapping up their fall session mid-December. Both the South LA students learning a plethora of digital marketing best practices and the Hawke Media staff teaching a variety of courses had an extremely enjoyable and successful first FlyForward Academy session, even taking on a South LA client Hot & Cool Cafe to apply the knowledge they've gained over the course of the program.

"For myself and Hawke Media, we believe the most important way to benefit society is to improve our education so that we empower others to solve problems of their own," says Hawke Media Founder and CEO Erik Huberman. "FlyForward Academy is our way of leveraging the talent at Hawke Media to help others gain skills that they can use to help them land amazing jobs, build up their communities, and improve the life of themselves and those around them. The Hawke team and I have loved our experience working with the students so far and are excited to continue to expand this program to reach more and more people."

Founded in 2014, MISLA has provided technology and financial literacy bootcamps on an ongoing basis to both youth and adults alike. In the summer of 2020, MARTY was formed with the purpose of training members via the full offering of MISLA courses, then directly employing them to service the community in the form of a Creative Design Agency for hire. MARTY members first participated in front and back end development, financial literacy, video editing, and graphic design courses, and then, after their summer courses, students received full scholarships into FlyForward Academy, presented and taught by Hawke Media, where the students learned digital and social media marketing as well as web design.

"I am honored to be a Founding Mother of what will surely go down in history as one of the most aspirational and innovative collective efforts to increase diversity in tech," says Cassie Betts, Founder of MISLA and Lead Consultant on Technology & Innovation at Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation (VSEDC). "I'd like to say to all the tech companies out there: take a page from Hawke Media's playbook of diversity and inclusion. Don't just talk about it. Train about it! Training inner city youth heading into the job market is a sure-fire way to increase your diversity numbers."

In a matter of weeks since its creation, MARTY obtained a contract with its first client, Hot & Cool Cafe, a Leimert Park black-owned, family-owned, and community-led cafe looking for a full rebrand. During the first-ever fall session of FlyForward Academy, students were able to apply the skills they learned from working with Hawke Media's digital marketing experts to help Hot & Cool Cafe reboot their online presence. Both MARTY and Hawke Media look forward to continuing to build their relationship through FlyForward Academy, so that South LA residents will be trained and able to provide affordable and much-needed services to the businesses in their community.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist, but it does take dedication, determination, and heart from all those involved," says Betts. "I always tell the Hawke team that they will make movies about us. I've decided that Zendaya should play me!"

While the fall session for FlyForward Academy is coming to a close, there will certainly be more sessions and possibly movies from the Hawke Media and MISLA/MARTY family. It's safe to say this digital marketing academy isn't going anywhere. To learn more about the MISLA/MARTY organizations, how to apply for scholarships, and how to hire the students to design your website, visit marty.world.

About Hawke Media
Established on the idea that every modern business needs a CMO-level expert to lead marketing efforts, Hawke Media specializes in custom, data-driven, performance-focused solutions to help launch, scale, and invigorate businesses of all sizes, industries, and revenue models. Founded in 2014 by Erik Huberman, Hawke Media is the nation's fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is headquartered in beautiful Los Angeles. Its mission is to bring top-tier marketing to all brands because they deserve it. Acting as a full-service outsourced CMO, Hawke offers a wide array of digital marketing services on a month-to-month, a la carte basis.

For more information, please visit www.hawkemedia.com.

About Made In South LA (MISLA)
Since 2014 MISLA- Made In South LA, has provided technology and financial literacy bootcamps on an ongoing basis to both youth and adults alike. Positioning MISLA participants to be game changers in the tech industry is an overarching intention. MISLA has been able to pair several past participants with roles within tech, evidence of the employable curriculum style in which they utilize.

With full support of VSEDC, Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation, MISLA is a primary partner within the South LA Best Buy Teen Tech Center/The Clubhouse Network, sponsored in part by Annenberg Tech and Pledge LA.

At MISLA, underrepresented minorities and low-income individuals from South LA receive scholarships to train as programmers, engineers, and digital creatives. MISLA is dedicated to increasing diversity in tech as well as providing economic growth within the community of South LA. MISLA believes that comprehensive training in web design, software programming, and other forms of digital literacy are essential to the survival of the South LA community and the most competent way of solving the diversity in tech deficit.

For more information, please visit www.misla.org.

Contact:
Ally Spiroff, Public Relations Manager
(310) 451-7295 // ally@hawkemedia.com

SOURCE Hawke Media

Credit: Article reposted with permission from Finance Yahoo