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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Kya Lewis didn&#8217;t even want an internship.</p><p>The 20-year-old from Philadelphia wandered around the internship fair at Wilkes University last fall without much intention &#8212; she was only there for class credit.</p><p>But then she met Wilkes alumni and Pepperjam employees Brooke Bishop and Megan Neri at the internet marketing company&#8217;s booth, and everything changed.</p><p>&#8220;When I got there, Brooke and Megan, they were me,&#8221; said Lewis, a marketing and management major at Wilkes. &#8220;They were just here like two years ago, they understood what we were going through &#8230; It was very relatable.&#8221;</p><p>Fast forward to today: Lewis is finishing her semester-long internship with Pepperjam, and she was even offered a paid position for this summer.</p><p>The company&#8217;s internship program is just one of the many ways that Pepperjam, led by CEO and Dallas resident Michael Jones, is having an impact on downtown Wilkes-Barre and beyond.</p><p>Pepperjam has nearly 300 employees worldwide, with 110 of them at the company&#8217;s headquarters in Wilkes-Barre. Pepperjam hires about 85 percent of its interns once the program is complete, according to Joseph Boylan, vice president of economic development for the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce.</p><p><strong>Gourmet to global</strong></p><p>Jones&#8217; brother, Kris Jones, started the company in 1999 as an online gourmet food purveyor based on their grandmother&#8217;s recipes. The brothers turned the business into an internet marketing and consulting company in 2004, and moved into a space in the Innovation Center @ Wilkes-Barre on South Main Street.</p><p>The company grew and eventually was purchased by GSI Commerce in 2009 and then by eBay in 2011 before being sold to private equity firms in 2015. It retained the eBay name even though there was no affiliation. Kris Jones left the business in 2009 to pursue other interests, including LSEO, a digital marketing company he founded.</p><p>Last year the company decided to go back to its roots with the Pepperjam name.</p><p>Boylan said the effects of Pepperjam&#8217;s influence on the downtown and surrounding community are expansive.</p><p>When Boylan started working for the chamber in 2014, the group began shifting its focus from real estate acquisitions to building on its supportive programs for businesses, and Boylan said Pepperjam was one of the first businesses to help with that new model.</p><p>One of those programs included working with local colleges and universities to ensure students were being trained for the jobs available in the area.</p><p>The chamber recently developed a program called Connect, which plans to launch in June. Its goal is to help students find internships at local businesses, including those in the startup community.</p><p>&#8220;The more opportunities we can create for these students, the better off we are at keeping them here,&#8221; Boylan said.</p><p>Michael Jones said working with local students through an internship program was always a hallmark of the company, and not just to help the community &#8212; it makes good business sense, too.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re trying to be the anti-brain-drain force in downtown,&#8221; he said. &#8220;&#8230; They don&#8217;t teach this stuff in school &#8212; you learn on the job. Almost half of our folks have gone through our program.&#8221;</p><p><strong>A different culture</strong></p><p>Lewis said she went shopping the weekend before her internship was scheduled to start and bought &#8220;lots of fancy clothes.&#8221; She wasn&#8217;t sure what to expect when she entered her first professional business experience.</p><p>&#8220;My expectation was that everyone would be in a suit and tie and everything would be that &#8216;I&#8217;m a business person&#8217; face,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I was just very nervous &#8230; I get there and the first thing my management supervisor does is give me a hug.&#8221;</p><p>Sharon Castano, internship coordinator at Wilkes University, said she believes Pepperjam&#8217;s organization and the autonomy given to interns gives it an edge and helps students learn in leaps and bounds.</p><p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve probably learned a year&#8217;s worth of knowledge in eight or nine weeks in the internship,&#8221; Castano said.</p><p>As Pepperjam grows in Wilkes-Barre, many other like-minded businesses have popped up. Boylan believes the downtown&#8217;s ability to become known as a tech epicenter is limited only by the number of students graduating from area colleges and universities.</p><p>&#8220;Unless the 14 higher (education facilities) within an hour&#8217;s drive from here leave, this is here,&#8221; he said. &#8220;&#8230; It&#8217;s about linking our K-12 and higher eds together to ensure that we&#8217;ve got the workforce that can handle that &#8230; I think, for us, our advantage is we are a smaller market, and that&#8217;s OK.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Pepperjam CEO Michael Jones says working with local students through an internship program has always been a hallmark of the company, and not just to help the community &#8212; it makes good business sense, too. &#8216;We&#8217;re trying to be the anti-brain drain force in downtown,&#8217; he said. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_pepperjam2_faa-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Pepperjam CEO Michael Jones says working with local students through an internship program has always been a hallmark of the company, and not just to help the community &#8212; it makes good business sense, too. &#8216;We&#8217;re trying to be the anti-brain drain force in downtown,&#8217; he said. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_pepperjam1_faa-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Pepperjam CEO Michael Jones said the decision to move his corporate headquarters to Wilkes-Barre was a deliberate and strategic choice not only to benefit his business, but the surrounding area as well. The company is located in the Innovation Center on South Main Street. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_pepperjam1_faa-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Pepperjam CEO Michael Jones said the decision to move his corporate headquarters to Wilkes-Barre was a deliberate and strategic choice not only to benefit his business, but the surrounding area as well. The company is located in the Innovation Center on South Main Street. </caption1><photoCredit1>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_Jones_Michael_470-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Mike Jones </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_Jones_Michael_470-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Mike Jones </caption2><photoCredit2>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_pepperjam3_faa-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Pepper Jam  ----------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 3-27-17</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_pepperjam3_faa-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Pepper Jam  ----------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 3-27-17</caption3><photoCredit3>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_pepperjam4_faa-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Paintings done by a Pepperjam employee adorn the wall at the global company&#8217;s headquarters in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_pepperjam4_faa-1.jpg</photo4><caption4>Paintings done by a Pepperjam employee adorn the wall at the global company&#8217;s headquarters in Wilkes-Barre. </caption4><photoCredit4>Fred Adams | For Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Sarah Hite Hando</p><p>shando@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>PEPPERJAM</strong></p><p><strong>&#8226; Founded:</strong> 1999</p><p><strong><strong>&#8226; </strong>CEO:</strong> Michael Jones</p><p><strong><strong>&#8226; </strong>Address: </strong>7 S. Main St., #301, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong><strong>&#8226; </strong>Phone: </strong>877-796-5700</p><p><strong><strong>&#8226; </strong>Website: </strong><a href="http://www.pepperjam.com" target="_blank">pepperjam.com</a></p><p><strong><strong>&#8226; </strong>Notable: </strong>Nearly a third of the company&#8217;s workforce is employed at its Wilkes-Barre headquarters. The company has 10 offices worldwide.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Sarah Hite Hando at 570-704-3945.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Pepperjam focus on keeping local grads in Wilkes-Barre area