By Amanda Hoover, news editor
As the academic year comes to a close, the Northeastern University Marketing Association (NUMA)’s members have four awards to show for their work.
NUMA brought the awards home from the American Marketing Association (AMA) International Collegiate Conference, which they attended from March 19 to 21 in New Orleans.
“It’s a reflection of all the great stuff we’ve done this year,” Marjorie Bogart, president of NUMA and a business major with a concentration in marketing, said.
The conference focuses the culmination of each chapter’s work on campus leading up to the conference, in addition to on-site workshops. This includes bringing guest speakers from potential employers to speak at meetings, publishing a blog series and mentoring younger students as they come to Northeastern.
This year, NUMA received three chapter excellence awards, including outstanding membership, outstanding planning and outstanding communications, as well as a second-place recognition in social media. The conference was attended by Bogart, Ashley Frizzell, Katherine Hayes, Eline Miedzinski, Fiona Gilmore, Emily Browning, Josh Patnod, Kayla O’Neil and Emma Munley.
“NUMA showcases some of the Marketing department’s top talent and this has now been recognized on a national level which is wonderful to see,” Jennifer Yule, an academic specialist in marketing and NUMA’s faculty advisor, said in an email to The News.
NUMA, an organization in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, is a chapter of the AMA, one of the largest marketing associations in the world, and is comprised of both professional and students.
In order to compete, NUMA had to submit a chapter plan outlining its goals for the coming months when the academic year began in September. Then, NUMA had to follow up with an annual report in February, detailing the work it had done and how it coincided with their goals. The groups were judged and awarded based on how well they carried out their initial plans.
The plan and annual report are based off of six tenets of AMA that they must uphold, according to Bogart. These include membership, communications, community service, social impact, fundraising, professional development and chapter outreach. NUMA must make sure it address each of these aspects and follow through with its proposal in order to be successful at the conference.
This year, NUMA’s chapter plan included two key components: a mentorship program and a blogging partnership with local online publication BostInno.
Each semester, NUMA hosts a panel of students who have co-oped at companies outside of Boston, allowing them to share their experiences with students who are interested in co-oping elsewhere. This year, NUMA published a blog series with posts from these on BostInno to share students’ experiences beyond the Northeastern community.
“We always have a panel and it’s just a way for students to kind of learn more. In order to promote that, we launched a Beyond Boston blog series,” said Bogart. “I think that was a huge success and that really contributed to why we were recognized.”
NUMA also placed greater emphasis on mentorship, using the expertise of older members to bring younger students into the program.
“It’s really important – younger students don’t know what co-op is about,” Frizzell, executive vice president of NUMA and third-year business major with a dual concentration in marketing and supply chain management, said. “That’s something that we as older students can be there and help them with.”
Looking forward, NUMA members hope to continue to attract important company executives to speak to members and foster a collaborative community.
“I think that our club exudes a high level of professionalism. We’re a part of the D’Amore-McKim School of Business and we take that for granted and it’s ingrained in us,” Bogart said. “[Other schools] don’t get great companies to come in and talk all the time. I think that’s something that we’ve always excelled in and really sets us apart.”
Photo by Scotty Schecnk
