Devan Bolden, Marketing

Devan Bolden grew up on the westside of Jacksonville where he often faced adversity. He began working at the age of 14 out of necessity. Schooling was looked down upon among many of his peers and was considered a prison rather than a way out. Despite all those formidable challenges, Bolden escaped the hard streets and was accepted into the University of South Florida.

As a first-year student, Bolden worked three jobs to pay for his education while maintaining diligence in his academic duties. Soon after he began to focus more on developing his desired career in marketing rather than holding multiple steady jobs. Being the recipient of the Florida Academic Scholars Bright Futures scholarship helped defray some of the costs of attending a university.

Since then he has held leadership and marketing roles with USF Ambassadors, Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Psi, the USF Black Students Union and FACES Modeling Troupe. Bolden also served as a marketing intern for GTE Financial where he conducted several extensive marketing projects over the course of eight months. He now is poised to graduate in May 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. He has an overall grade-point average of  3.65.

Bolden is grateful for the career and personal growth opportunities he has had while at USF and looks forward to expanding upon them in the future.