MANSFIELD — Sebastian Holt may be self-taught, but mentors have been crucial along his path.
Now, he and other Mansfield Senior High alumni hope to pave the way for future Tygers.
Five students in Mansfield Senior High’s entrepreneurship career tech program recently began an internship with Genius Cloud Solutions.
GCS was founded fellow Senior High alumni Benjamin Addai, who serves as the company’s CEO. Holt is GSC’s Chief AI Engineer.
Holt, Addai and fellow Mansfield product Yima Chia-Kur, GCS’ senior DevOps engineer and generative AI specialist, will guide students through the eight-week, intensive course. Interns Jaxson Stenz, Camden Merrell, Alijah Scott, Peyton Page and Grayson Sanders will focus on artificial intelligence engineering.
“This opportunity gives students exposure to emerging technology that will impact their lives on a daily basis,” said entrepreneurship instructor Todd Hoovler.
“For my students, this could lead to a well-paying job right out of high school, a college major or starting a business in the AI field down the line.”
Holt said people typically think of ChatGPT when they think of artificial intelligence. But the possibilities of AI go beyond chatbots. AI is already being used to diagnose cancer, predict stock market and weather patterns and create virtual tours.
“The purpose of this internship is that I want students to be well-informed on how it works in businesses and how it can be taken seriously as a career,” Holt said.
“Our primary goal is to really give our students a chance — opening up the doors for exposure and really giving them the tools and confidence they need.”
Holt said ‘Mansfield grit’ helped him build a career in tech
In addition to learning about the opportunities that exist, students will learn the skills and the mindset behind the job.
Students will be contributing to product development and proofs of concept. They’ll learn how to use different AI platforms and experiment with groundbreaking models.
“They are building a portfolio of projects they can use to begin a career, or use in college if they choose to go to college,” Hoovler said.
Holt and Chia-Kur visited Senior High last week to distribute official letters of acceptance into the program. While each student signed their offer letter, the men played an AI-generated anthem on Holt’s laptop.
“We are the Tygers, hear our roar,” the autotune voice sang. “Mansfield pride forevermore!”
Holt and Hoovler told the students the hardscrabble hustle mentality of Mansfield will serve them well.
“I’m just a small man from Mansfield, but what I do have is the Mansfield grit, and that’s something that you can’t replace,” Holt said.
During the short ceremony, Hoover told parents and guests that the students’ own initiative helped secure the opportunity.
“The steps they’ve already taken to be sitting here — they took ownership,” Hoover said. “They made sure their résumés were right to send them to Mr. Holt. They made sure they did an introductory email to tell them a little bit about who they are.
“Originally, (GCS) said they had one slot, maybe two, but they’ve committed to working with everybody who applied because they were impressed with what you guys have,” he added.
Hoover said the students will also earn high school credit in the form of work based learning hours for completing the internship.
‘I really wanna give them the person that I needed at that age.’
Holt’s discovered his interest in tech while taking interactive media courses at Mansfield Senior High, but he didn’t aspire to work in the industry right away.
After graduating from Senior High, he earned a degree in world history from Georgia State. He had plans to be a teacher, but ended up pursuing an IT career instead.
That’s when he met one of his mentors, who showed him what a career in tech could look like.
“He pretty much exposed me to the elevated possibilities as far as an in-demand career and just laid out a measurable pathway to go about it,” he said.
Since then, Holt and several friends from the industry have banded together to mentor other emerging professionals.
“Everybody in my group is self-taught. We all helped each other transition into different roles from software engineering, AI, cloud and DevOps,” he said.
“We brought people in and collectively mentored them, critiqued their resume, helped them get their LinkedIn portfolio together, everything needed to get a job.”
Earlier this year, Holt stopped by Mansfield Senior High School to talk to students and several expressed interest in the field.
“I felt that it was only right to put my time and my efforts behind students from my own high school,” he said.
“I really wanna give them the person that I needed at that age. Technology is constantly changing. If they’re given exposure, it’s a lot easier to make that decision if you want to move forward.”
