“Education and Application” Leads to Success for the terpAMA

terpAMA , the undergraduate student society for the marketing department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, has been in focus recently for numerous reasons. One major accomplishment is its recognition by the American Marketing Association (AMA) as one of the top 16 collegiate chapters in the country this year. Mary B. Harms, a co-faculty advisor for the association, pointed out that the association has also been acknowledged nationally as the most revitalized chapter and has been recognized for excellent planning, tremendous member involvement and for its “rich” Web site.

The association, with more than 100 members, is one of the largest and most active student organizations at the Smith School. The association indulges in numerous activities aimed at not only helping the freshmen and sophomores understand marketing, but also provides them a platform for practicing and applying the concepts learned in class to practical business scenarios. Additionally, it provides the members opportunities such as resume building and interviewing skills workshops, discussion panels where the marketing faculty and MBA candidates share their views, experiences and provide invaluable insights on marketing. Through such forums, the students also get to interact with people from diverse functions such as market research, sales, retailing, advertising, Web-based marketing - all of which play an important role in the bigger marketing domain.

As part of its endeavors towards keeping the students close to the larger AMA community and also to the industry, the terpAMA takes around 15 student members of the association to the annual national conference of the AMA at New Orleans. The association is also acknowledged for being one of the first to organize the annual New York trip, an event which takes the students further close to the marketing industry.

Monisha Tripathi, the president of the terpAMA says that as part of the trip this year, the students would be visiting firms such as MTV, New World Stages and TBWA\Chiat\Day, a top advertising firm. Through this trip, the students get the opportunity to interact with the industry professionals, benefit by the exposure to the marketing domain and also gain access to a network of successful individuals who can help them succeed in their careers. The association’s resource rich Web site further provides its members access to a job page to assist them in their job search.

As a part of providing its members real-world experience and also serving the community, the terpAMA will assist the town of Chevy Chase, MD, with research for their new carbon dioxide reduction project, as part of the Chevy Chase Challenge, this year. The students will engage in this initiative to come up with a strategic plan based on extensive marketing surveys to encourage homeowners to undertake energy audits and contribute towards making their city more environmentally friendly. This project is just another example of how the association values and promotes social responsibility and grooms future leaders by providing hands on experiential learning, and also works towards contributing to the society.

On being asked about how the association has undergone such an amazing transformation to its current form, Mary Harms expressed that the faculty advisors together with the board members of the association have taken major steps towards making the association more professional. The board members meet every week and the faculty advisors meet the key members of the executive council regularly to discuss and plan the activities. The association is very conscientious about working with a national organization and is committed towards keeping the terpAMA at the top in all aspects, be it chapter planning, fund raising, the annual events or student involvement activities.

Given the benefits of being a part of such an engaging association, around 60-80 percent of the members attend the meetings of the organization regularly and participate actively, which are excellent figures for such a vast organization by any standards. Keeping in line with this years’ theme, “Education and Application,” the association plans to keep its members engaged and challenged by the experiential immersive learning and will continue to strive towards taking the organization further up the “sweet sixteen” ladder of the AMA.

Siddhartha Jain, MBA Candidate 2010, Smith Media Group