Marketing students are organizing to advocate for more specific resources and classes.
Senior Antonia Simas Magalhães, a business major with a marketing concentration, registered the GW chapter of the American Marketing Association with the Center for Student Engagement Monday, resurfacing a defunct organization that was registered at GW several years ago but died out. Simas Magalhães, the president of the group, and others who serve on the executive board said the organization foster networking and vocational opportunities for marketing students to gain more hands-on experience that will help them land jobs and internships in the field.
Simas Magalhães said the chapter aims to show students what “they can do after GW” with a marketing degree and give them the tools and resources that they require to excel in the field. She said she first began brainstorming the organization last year while applying to internships, when some jobs required technical skills, like knowledge of graphic design or Adobe programs, that she was not taught at GW.
“I felt that the marketing department was not giving me exactly what I needed, so I decided to go on my own,” she said.
Simas Magalhães said she first decided to bring her concerns to Leo Moersen, the associate dean for undergraduate programs at the business school, who told her that the broadness of the marketing field prohibits the University from offering every class that students could need.
Business majors who take on a marketing concentration are required to take six courses, with options like Digital Marketing, Salesmanship and Sales Management and Advertising & Marketing Communications, according to business school website.
She said she and nine other students worked together to start the organization, which they hope will complement the marketing theory taught by professors. Simas Magalhães said the organization will use the connections of the national chapter of the AMA to promote networking opportunities, and the group will also host workshops with professionals who can teach members skills like Adobe Photoshop.
The group hosted its first “Inaugural Brunch” on Sunday with the hopes of raising awareness about the new chapter and recruiting new members, she said. She said about 75 students have expressed interest in the club, and students from any major are welcome.
Sophomore Lavanya Bhatia, a member of the executive board, said she wanted to get involved in the organization because there is a lack of student organizations for marketing students. She said she did not see any marketing groups at the student organization fair last year, and she hopes the resurrection of the GW AMA chapter will give marketing students a wider community and more resources.
“Whatever we see lacking from the marketing major is what we’re trying to bridge the gap between by being in the organization,” she said.
Johan Ferreira, an adjunct professor of marketing and the faculty adviser to the group, said faculty cannot provide all the skills that students might need for jobs in the marketing world because the field is so broad, and the concentration must cover the basics.
“I see it as a synergy between the core tools that the faculty is sharing and complementing it with the work of the AMA,” he said.
