Members of the McAfee School of Business will be launching a chapter of the American Marketing Association at Union University this semester.
Kate Lawrence, senior marketing major, and Brooke Emery, associate professor of marketing, are recruiting business students to join the new club.
“I had the desire to create a local chapter of the American Marketing Association to provide a direct avenue for marketing students to cross paths with professionals in the marketing field,” Lawrence said.
“With there being more people than there are jobs today, students need every opportunity to learn from and to meet professionals in our desired field.”
The AMA is one of the largest marketing associations in the world, with more than 30,000 global members involved in the field of marketing.
The organization is the leading organization for marketers, offering members resources for marketing and academics.
Senior economics major John Melton will be one of the founding members of the new AMA organization.
“I became interested in joining AMA because I believed that involvement in this group would benefit my future economics career, as marketing is the social network to customers in this business field,” said Melton.
Lawrence also mentioned that membership allows individuals to “stay relevant with knowledge, training and tools to enhance the lifelong learning and obtain valuable information and connections.”
International alliances for the AMA include the Asia Marketing Federation, the Marketing Association of Spain and the European Marketing Academy.
The AMA also has established an office in China.
For members, benefits include invitations to regional and national AMA conferences and events, subscriptions to multiple marketing magazines and publications, access to professional marketing software and access to AMA’s national job and internship board.
“I just recently learned of AMA, as I have been on a job search,” Lawrence said.
“I mentioned the organization to Professor Brooke Emery, who, coincidentally, was a founding member of an AMA chapter at Rhodes College in the ‘80s. When she said that, I thought it was too weird of a coincidence for us not to begin a chapter.”
Lawrence and Emery are in the early stages of beginning the chapter and securing a charter.
“With my role as faculty adviser , I intend for this organization to foster more opportunities for students involved in AMA to gain more experience that will benefit them as they enter into their future careers,” Emery said.
Lawrence is writing a constitution that outlines how the organization will run and why it will exist at Union.
“We are looking for members, and we expect to be officially chartered by the end of November,” Lawrence said.
While the organization is open to any students who are interested, the founding members are targeting marketing majors and minors.
“We are excited to offer this organization as another opportunity for students to become involved in business and gain experience in the marketing field,” Emery said.
