September 25, 2017

When Christian Coleman listens to music he wrote, he feels like he’s watching a movie.

“My music is just me painting a picture of my feelings,” he said. “It doesn’t really fit a genre. It’s just me telling a story.”

Coleman, known musically as Khan the Don, first recorded his own music at age 18 at the startup music studio, Music Works NYC, where he completed a marketing internship this summer.

Yes, Coleman is a marketing major, not a music major. That’s because—from art and entertainment to music and fashion—Coleman wants to be part of the machine that promotes it all.

“I’m an entrepreneur; that’s where I shine,” Coleman said. “The life behind a lot of products is in the marketing and I want to be part of that.”

Located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Music Works NYC is a multifaceted company that includes a recording studio and two media record labels, one reggae and the other hip-hop.

“The hip-hop label, which was my focus, is currently working with two artists and has a goal to promote them to the fullest extent,” Coleman said. “This entailed digging through all forms of media and analyzing different platforms and even other artists to see what the best form of promotion would be.”

A native of Bronx, N.Y., Coleman credits his marketing classes, as well as his campus extracurricular activities, with the skills necessary to succeed in the business.

“I put to use nearly every skill that I learned in my marketing class for my internship and it made me so much more appreciative of the class,” Coleman said. “My work with campus clubs like Design, Innovation, Creativity & Entrepreneurship and Fashion Club have molded me into a marketer capable of working with professionals and offering great ideas to expand on any endeavor.”

In the meantime, he continues to write and perform his own music, which he loves.

“I’m still figuring out who I am as a persona,” he said, “and every performance is an opportunity to refine who I am.”

See more internships here.