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Mentorship Program Helps Lincoln AMA Chapter Win Excellence Award

The American Marketing Association (AMA) recently awarded the Lincoln AMA chapter its Chapter Excellence Award for the third time in four years. The award was established in 1974 to recognize outstanding achievements in leadership, membership, programming and communications from among 350 AMA professional chapters nationwide. As part of the festivities for the award presentation, Russ Klein, AMA chief executive officer, visited with students at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Business Administration to talk about the importance of engagement.

Klein stressed the mentorship program between the Lincoln professional chapter and the UNL student chapter was a key ingredient to Lincoln winning the award.

Russ Klein, CEO of AMA, recognizes Lincoln chapter
Klein, CEO of AMA, recognizes Lincoln chapter
“When we have two entities like Lincoln has making the decision to become stronger together, it results in member satisfaction,” Klein said. “It’s a hallmark of why the Lincoln chapter is identified as one of the truly excellent chapters in the AMA network.”

Klein, who was recognized by Adweek as “The Advertiser of the Decade” for the 2000s for his work at Burger King, sees Lincoln as a model chapter for others to follow.

“We keep our chapter network healthy through recognition and feedback. The variability between high functioning AMA chapters and ones that need help is almost always found in the leadership. We see strong leadership in Lincoln where there’s both a professional and collegiate chapter, who have combined to form a strong mentorship program,” he said.

Shannon Ronhovde, a senior marketing major from Eagle, Nebraska, has experienced the benefits of mentorship first-hand, as one of about 30 UNL AMA students who have a mentor.

Ronhovde believes in mentorship program
Ronhovde believes in mentorship program
“My mentor is Amber Olderbak from Nelnet, who has been with me since I joined AMA my sophomore year,” said Ronhovde. “We meet about once a month to talk about my goals, particularly with regard to internships and jobs.”

She emphasized mentors can spark a chain of opportunity that would otherwise be missed.

“I was looking for something sports related, and my mentor helped me get a position at the YMCA as a graphic design intern. It turned out my supervisor there was also in AMA, so being in the network lets me meet all these people with marketing experience. Everyone in the AMA community seems to know each other,” she said.

Rob Simon, associate professor of practice in marketing, believes students who join AMA have an incredible advantage.

“The mentorship program is a great recruiting tool for our collegiate AMA chapter,” Simon said. “It differentiates us from other recognized student organizations because a lot of our students stay with their mentor for two or three years. They not only get jobs from it, but they go back to their mentor as their career expands and now have a partner in their marketing career.”

To find out more about the UNL AMA chapter contact Steve Welton, assistant professor or practice and AMA advisor, at swelton3@unl.edu
Published: February 4, 2016