Washington

(Emma Hart)
My name is Em Rose Hart. I'm from Seattle, Washington.
As a Bank of America student leader, I had the opportunity to work at Technology Access Foundation, a non-profit, for 8 weeks as a paid intern. Technology Access Foundation is all about using STEM in communities that normally don't have access to promote higher education and academic success.

(Sherry Williams)
Emma has really set the bar high. She has been able to do things that a lot of adults can't do in terms of her work style, her communication, just being on top of things, taking initiative.
She can teach adults, I mean really, on work ethic, and everybody is just like, "Oh, my God, what are we gonna do when Emma leaves?"
We know how important it is to be able to build and develop home-grown talent, because they are our future workforce. They are our future leaders, and the program that we have with student leaders is really intentioned to drive and feed that ambition and that passion that our students here in the community have to create social change across this country.

(Emma)
Since I was really little, I always wanted to be a teacher, and even in dance class, I would, like, be the one to point all the other kids where to go.
So, I've developed that as I've grown, but through doing so, I realized that there were some real issues within education.
And so, I created Shine Bright, which is an organization that works to motivate elementary school students to love learning, and it's all through building foundational skills.
This past year, we were in 6 elementary schools serving about 120 students, and we had about 50-plus high school student volunteers.

(Kim Vu)
I think it is really important to be able to not only tell our young people that they matter, but that we're also giving them the tools and resources they need to build those skills so they can be a part of the future.

(Emma)
I think it's so important that youth and people my age have access to meaningful work opportunities.
An experience like this internship could be a game changer for so many students.

(Kim)
In addition to the summer internship, we send over 200 students to Washington D.C. to learn about civic engagement and how to create change in their communities. This teaches them not only workforce development skills, but also leadership skills, and it's not uncommon that many of these students that go to the program end up back in the community in executive leadership roles later on.
There is a lot to be said for the power of every high school student's ability to make a really meaningful change. And when you give youth the opportunity to do that, they're able to grow in themselves and work towards making the community a more vivid and flourishing place.
♪♪♪

Since 2004, Bank of America has connected over 2,500 Student Leaders to employment, skills development and service in communities all around the country.

BANK OF AMERICA – LOCAL MARKETS 2013
SEATTLE – POP GOURMET POPCORN
AS - PRODUCED VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

David Israel: I was watching some friends adding some candies and cereals to their popcorn, and I got this idea. Pop Gourmet is the highest quality, best-value popcorn product on the market. We wanted to stay in Renton, because that’s where our roots were from and the community was supportive. We literally had lines for months. Actually that’s where I hired, my now-partner Sachin, as a store manager. 

SUPER: SACHIN AJITH, VP OF PROJECT DEVELOPMENT, POP GOURMET POPCORN

Sachin Ajith: David’s the genious. I mean, he’s the guy that comes up with all the great ideas. And I’m the guy that says, “Yes, we can do it.” And, then we’ll figure out how to do it. 

David Israel: I mean it sounds easy. I was like, well, you know. We’ll put a microwave in, we’ll pop it, and throw in some stuff. And it wasn’t quite that simple. 

Sachin Ajith: As time progressed I mean we went through our ups and downs.

David Israel: You’re losing a lot of sleep wondering if you’re going to make it the next day. You know? Having your bank account go to zero, and using your credit card to make a payroll. But, those things are what help us get to the next level. 

David Israel: I got a call out of nowhere. They want to put us on Good Morning America. That was huge for us. We weren’t prepared. We had a small factory. And we didn’t know what we were doing for those kinds of orders. 

Sachin Ajith: I feel like, I come in, and, I don’t know how twelve hours passed. Because it’s just been so exciting and we’re doing so many different things. 

David Israel: We’ve grown this from a three-person team, into now twenty-eight people. We’re going to or Austria or Spain to get the perfect all natural, gluten-free, non-GMO ingredients out there. We won’t spare any expense. We want to be at a higher level. 

Sachin Ajith: I am eating popcorn all the time. Not as much as David. 

David Israel: I think my two favorites today are the Fire Corn and the Rogue Blue. The Almond Roca and the Chocolate Salted Caramel. 

David Israel: Bank of America is everywhere. So no matter where we were when we opened our first stores, they were close to everything. But you don’t think that you’re going to have a relationship there, because they’re so big. And we’re so small.

SUPER: MICHAEL BRUNELLE, SMALL BUSINESS BANKING, BANK OF AMERICA

Michael Brunelle: They have a model that seemed to be so innovative. It kind of blew me away.

David Israel: The guy that worked here every day couldn’t describe our business as well as my banker does.” It’s remarkable. 

Michael Brunelle: We can take care of any need that it is that they have. Doing term loans for equipment or lines of credit to help their cash flow. We’re accommodating our clients in a way that no other bank is going to be able to do. I think they are going to be a household name. Everybody is going to know about them. The sky’s the limit for it.

David Israel: It makes me smile. Life’s good.

BANK OF AMERICA – LOCAL MARKETS 2013
SEATTLE - BLACK RAVEN BREWERY
AS - PRODUCED VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

SUPER: BEAUX BOWMAN, OWNER/HEAD BREWER, BLACK RAVEN BREWING CO.

Beaux Bowman: We’re very fortunate in Washington that we live in a large hop-growing region. Washington is the largest hop-growing state in America. Black Raven was started with the idea of starting a neighborhood brewery. We really wanted a place that the neighborhood could go straight to the source. Have some beers there, take some beer to go, and have a really good time. 

Beaux Bowman: For us it starts right at the glass. We work our way back. What do we want to taste, what do we want to drink, what do we want to have on the aroma? What do we want it to look like? And from that we backwards build the beer. 

Beaux Bowman: I like being in the brewery. I like hands-on, making things. Monitoring, controlling variables, because it’s really all about the yeast. The yeast is doing the hard work. We just steer the yeast in the right direction. And we can usually get, I’d say ninety-five percent of what we’re aiming for on the first batch. And from there we can dial it in. 

SUPER: BRENT EVANS, CUSTOMER

Brent Evans: It tastes like, you know, like you’re just eating like a fresh hop. Or like, just like following it down with like a sunflower. That’s what it tastes like.  It’s just, every ingredient that they put in the beer you can taste it. Like, they don’t waste anything that they put in the beer at all.

SUPER: KATHRYN GILLESPIE, OWNER, BLACK RAVEN BREWING CO.

Kathryn Gillespie: I think it was back in 2010 the Seattle Times had an article about us on the front page of the section that said something about Black Raven Brewing Company – Washington’s first cult beer, and that seems to be actually what’s going on; it’s, it’s like a cult thing.

SUPER: NIGEL SLATER, SALES MANAGER, BLACK RAVEN BREWING COMPANY

Nigel Slater: Every single drop of beer that we make, is pretty much pre-sold.  So my job right now has become more of allocating where the beer goes. And I’m eventually going to get to those people, and knock on their doors and say it’s right here, right now. But, not just yet. They’re going to have to wait. 

Beaux Bowman: We took on more space in the building. Also increasing production capacity in the back. Bank of America, allowed us the access to the capital and to be able to take the next step that we really desperately needed to take.

SUPER: JEFF GRIMES, SMALL BUSINESS BANKING, BANK OF AMERICA

Jeff Grimes: Black Raven has grown tremendously. Bank of America, you know, definitely wants to be a big part of their growth. We are helping them, you know, to guide them into that direction – to own the facility, to, um, handle their capacity, help future growth. Small business is a huge part of this economy and for the economy to grow we need small businesses to thrive.

Beaux Bowman: The secret to the success of Black Raven – We’re all putting in 100%, we’re listening to the market, the consumer, our customers and moving forward.