5 minute read
Creating Opportunity through Connection
Caleb Upkins ’17
Caleb Upkins ’17 lives by the mantra of creating opportunity through connection with himself and others, and he believes that both are equally important. Ensworth provided the environment for him to find these connections through rigorous academics, top-tier sports, and world-class art programs. It was by blending different sounds and experimenting in the music studio at Ensworth that Caleb found his passion.
Penn wasn’t all sunshine and roses, though, for Caleb. “Freshman year was a bit of a culture shock, as I found myself among a lot of differently-minded people,” he says, “but I really appreciated that dynamic about Penn. It changed my framework.” Following the adage, “your network is your net worth,” Caleb focused on meeting people and making connections by attending every event he could, joining entrepreneurial clubs, creative community clubs, and Greek life and becoming his fraternity’s social chair.
Following his sophomore year, Caleb became a teaching assistant for the LEAD (Leadership, Education, and Development) program at Wharton. The highly selective program provides training and guidance for outstanding Black and Latinx high school students from historically underserved communities who want to pursue a career in business. This program gave Caleb the opportunity to give back to his community by mentoring these students, teaching them professional skills such as interviewing, networking, managing finances, and business etiquette, and taking them to New York to tour major investment banks and tech firms so they could learn and visualize themselves being in that position one day.
The LEAD experience inspired Caleb to seek further mentorship for himself, and during his junior year, he applied and was admitted to Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT), a selective non-profit that develops top Black and Latinx collegiate students throughout the U.S. and partners with more than 120 of the world’s top business organizations to create diverse talent pipelines for leadership at all levels. During MLT’s interview day, Caleb signed up for as many interviews as he could for a management consulting internship, although for some companies, like Google, he ended up on a waitlist for an interview slot.
With his internship locked, Caleb took the opportunity to study abroad in Sydney, Australia the second semester of his junior year. Unfortunately, COVID became a global pandemic, and he had to return home and quarantine in Nashville. His internship with Google ended up being virtual, but he made the best of it. He was referenced in the Fast Company article “I’m a VP at Google, and This is What my Summer Interns Taught Me” written by Google’s Vice President of Global Marketing. By his senior year, he had an offer to return to Google to work full-time.
As luck would have it, Caleb’s now roommate accepted an internship offer with Bain the night before interview day and canceled all of his remaining interviews. This opened up a slot for Google and pulled Caleb off the waitlist. Fast forward a couple of months, and Caleb had secured an internship with Google. “A big theme in my life has been that I can prepare for a lot, but God and the universe have a way of using what I prepared for something that’s an even better fit,” he shares.
Caleb joined Google as a growth marketer for YouTube Shorts and YouTube Music Artists, where he partnered with the Artist Relations team to get music artists to participate in challenges associated with creating YouTube Shorts. After living and working in San Francisco for a year and watching the city transform drastically post-COVID, he decided to make a change: “A lot of people left San Francisco during and after the pandemic, and it started feeling like a hollow city. I wanted to be somewhere more vibrant, so I moved down to Los Angeles.” Caleb also made a move in his career, transferring over to YouTube Music and Premium Services, where he oversees acquisition marketing.
Throughout his journey, Caleb credits the people on his path for helping him get to where he is today: “I’m truly grateful for the people I have had the opportunity to work with and the exposure to so many talented artists and successful business leaders. The people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had are the most valuable part of what I have learned.”
Caleb also credits Ensworth for helping establish the foundation that has carried him forward to this day. He shares, “Ensworth definitely provided the tools that gave me the confidence to feel like I could do whatever I wanted to pursue. I felt inspired and challenged by the general competitiveness and excellence that I saw every day academically, musically, and athletically. I love seeing former classmates who have succeeded professionally at a large scale; there are countless people who have gone on to do well. Ensworth provides all of the resources and opportunities; if you take advantage of that, you will not only set yourself up to do well, but you’ll also find a special connection with your community and with yourself.”
Tiffany Townsend Director of Marketing & Communications
