Our story begins in 2016. Jackson, then a 15-year old sophomore at Bloomington High School, spotted a flyer from State Farm talking about an IT internship. It piqued his interest and he planned to apply when he met the age requirement at 16.

All in the family

“All I really knew about State Farm was that it was a good place to work; I’d heard my mom say that for as long as I can remember,” Jackson said.

Jackson’s mom, Natalie, has been with State Farm for 23 years and encouraged him to apply when he was in high school.

It was a great decision. Not only did Jackson gain experience in coding and IT work while in high school, he was also in a great position to start a new internship through the Research and Development Center (RDC) when he started at the University of Illinois.

A program that works

RDC is located on campus at U of I and matches students with internship opportunities at State Farm. Not only does this program help students gain real world experience, it also helps State Farm recruit top level students, like Jackson.

“The RDC recruits exclusively to the University of Illinois which houses the #6 Computer Engineering program in the country, so we get to meet some extraordinary students,” said Intern Coordinator Heather Park.

“I got the chance to work on all kinds of cool things at the RDC,” said Jackson. “Everybody there really takes an interest in what the interns want to learn, which is great.”

By the time he’d finished his first year, he told his mom he’d decided that he wanted to work for State Farm.

Making it official

Jackson’s internship will officially come to an end on Dec. 10, but his State Farm journey is just beginning. He’ll be starting as an official member of the State Farm family, working out of the Atlanta Hub.

“I’m really grateful,” said Jackson. “I’m grateful for State Farm for giving me these great opportunities, and I’m grateful to my mom for helping me out, as well.”