Editor’s note: This article was originally published online, on March 30.
Next time Donald Trump is looking for contestants for his show, he may not have to travel much farther than the School of Business.
Three of the school’s classes are having students gain real-world experience in their field of study, mostly from inside the classroom.
One class is participating in a marketing campaign for the Federal Bureau of Investigation while another group will be sending 14 students to New York City to present a marketing project to advertising professionals. The car manufacturer Subaru gave a third group a budget to advertise a line of cars to students.
FBI project
Students in associate professor of business administration Marilyn Liebrenz-Himers class are working for the FBI – but not as agents. Students in the class are a part of the FBI Collegiate Marketing Recruitment Program, coordinated by an education marketing agency called EdVenture.
Colonial Marketing Partners, the name given to their mini-marketing firm made up of the 27 students in the class, was given a $2,500 budget to research, develop and implement their marketing campaign, “Set Your Sights on the FBI.” GW is one of seven schools in the country participating in the program this semester.
The group has already spent some of its money hosting events on campus to raise awareness about the FBI and career opportunities.
“I’m looking forward to our events,” senior Kristen Yee said. “I really want to see all of our efforts in action.” Yee is the department head for public relations for this project.
Some of the events included an FBI workout class on March 29 and an “interactive informational event” scheduled for April 6 that will include mini crime scene investigation stations and a language challenge with food and prizes.
There will be a post-campaign evaluation in which the group will present their results to representatives from the FBI who will determine the effect of their campaign.
NYC marketing project
“It’s a six-credit class, but it feels like 12 units of work,” said junior Maria Bea Querido on the project for her advanced advertising campaigns class.
The intensive project for the class requires students to act as a mini-ad agency in the National Student Advertising Competition for the American Advertising Federation. This year, student groups must develop and market a product for the company Postal Vault.
One student at the group’s Friday meeting lamented about how she has three exams on Monday on top of this group project, which has installments due at different intervals throughout the semester.
“I’ve lost relationships … I have no time,” senior Jai Patel said.
The GW class is marketing a locking mailbox. The group will present its idea at a regional finals presentation in New York City in May. The presentation will be in front of professional marketers, advertising and business professionals who will act as judges for the contest.
“GW places in the top five every year in our district,” Patel said. GW won the regional competition in 1998.
The regional winner progresses to San Francisco for the national competition.
Subaru
Students in another section of basic marketing management with Liebrenz-Himes are working for Subaru, through EdVentures, and are in a competition with other schools. Subaru gave students in the class a budget to raise awareness about Impreza, their new line of cars geared toward young people.
“It’s basically like we set up our own marketing firm.
“This is our chance to show our school is a better marketing school and has a better business program,” Manchanda said.
Two Subaru representatives come to the school about three times throughout the semester in order to check the students’ progress. During their last visit, students will present their final work and the representatives will tally up the names of potential consumers that the group has recruited throughout the semester at various events.
