Front row: Donna Coelho, Katie McGrath, Molly Bell, Mia Martovich, Reilly Schmidt, Julia Farah, Julie Hoff and Tiffany Leite
DANBURY, Connecticut — Western Connecticut State University sent a contingent of 14 students and two advisers from its American Marketing Association chapter, Western Marketing Association, to the annual American Marketing Association International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, last month. Their efforts were recognized with several awards including being named the 2024 Platinum Circle Top Small Chapter in North America. WCSU won the Top Small Chapter Award in 2023, which elevated it to the Platinum Circle level for 2024. The awards are based on scores in six functional categories: Community and Social Impact, Professional Development, Fundraising, Membership, Internal/External Communications, and Chapter Operations/Budget.
More than 1,500 students from 120 universities in the United States and Canada attended the annual conference. Joining them were Bariscan Akbulut, a Digital & Interactive Marketing major from Selden, New York; Briana Beekman, a Communication Studies major from West Sayville, New York; Molly Bell, a Small Business Management major from Southbury; Dominic Cassarino, a Digital & Interactive Marketing major from Tolland; Julia Farah, a Marketing major from Danbury; Julie Hoff, a Digital & Interactive Marketing major from Shelton; Shane Klesh, a Supervisory Management major from Brookfield; Tiffany Leite, a Marketing major from New Fairfield; Mia Martovich, a Marketing major from Southbury; Katie McGrath, a Marketing major from Sherman; Julia Meadows, a Marketing major from New Milford; Emily Rodriguez, a Digital & Interactive Marketing major from Danbury; Reilly Schmidt, a Small Business Management major from Patchogue, New York; and Nicholas Varbaro, a Marketing major from Carmel, New York.
The students were accompanied by faculty advisers Donna Coelho, AMA Collegiate Council Member; and Dr. Ronald Drozdenko, WCSU Marketing Department chair.
In the 2024 Case Competition, WCSU’s team was named a semi-finalist. The Case Competition is an academic, yearlong competition that brings together top marketing students to work on a business challenge submitted by a sponsoring organization. The 2023-24 case sponsor, Sheth Foundation, provided a hypothetical marketing problem and student teams developed a detailed marketing strategy.
WMA Chapter President Shane Klesh was a finalist and received honorable mention in the Pitch Perfect Competition. Sponsored by Insight Global, the Pitch Perfect Competition is a 90-second interview in which competitors position themselves as being “right for the job.” Like an elevator pitch competition, the goal is to provide two to three key selling points for why each of the participants is an ideal candidate and then support those qualifications with examples.
Nicholas Varbaro, Julie Hoff, Julia Farah, Julia Meadows and Molly Bell placed in the top ¼ of teams in the Marketplace Simulation, at number 13 out of 60 teams. Marketplace Simulations are marketing games that give participants a feel for what it’s like to be behind the desk of a real company; allowing them to identify market opportunities, design new products, create ad campaigns, manage a sales team, react to market and industry data, and grow the bottom line.
Marketing Week, an annual campus event hosted by WCSU’s Western Marketing Association, received Outstanding Honorable Mention. The event takes place in the fall each year to showcase career opportunities in marketing and highlights the benefits of AMA membership through campus programming.
Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.