When Rebecca Ajulu-Bushell was a fine-arts student at Oxford University, she landed an internship at a prestigious gallery. There, she learned about the art world, but not in the way she expected. The organization, which seemed to exclusively employ blond, white women, paid a stipend that didn’t even cover her London Tube fare. To get a full-time job there, a colleague warned, “You either have to know someone who knows [the gallery owner]. Or you have to wait until someone dies,” Ajulu-Bushell recalls.
The experience was disheartening, but it didn’t curb the drive of the first Black woman to swim for Great Britain’s national team and former world No. 1 swimmer in the 50-meter breaststroke. Ajulu-Bushell is now CEO of the 10,000 Interns Foundation, which, in three years, has…
