Marketing students wanting to make the most out of their education at the UNL College of Business may want to consider joining the American Marketing Association student organization. Sara Breen, currently specializing in Sports Marketing at UNL and on the board of the UNL AMA chapter, has one great reason to join.

“Students don’t realize the impact of having the American Marketing Association on their resume and I didn’t either,” said Breen. “Just paying the dues and coming to the meetings has helped me so much and I never would have expected that from a club. The opportunity and the doors that it has opened for me from having that one line on my resume – everyone knows about AMA.”

Breen said that on her job interviews it’s worked as a conversation starter in more than one instance when the person interviewing her was also an AMA member. It’s also important as part of the mentorship program which AMA promotes.

“AMA does a lot of mentorship. We have a program where the marketing professionals here in Lincoln who are involved in the professional AMA nationally sign up to be mentors. We assign some students randomly and then others based on some specific things like research or wanting to be involved with Gallup.”

The AMA student group meets twice a month and they’re currently gearing up to coordinate this year’s mentorship partners.

“We try to match people up with what they like to do. It’s a student based thing because it’s up to you how much you want to be involved. They’ll talk to you about anything but it is the student’s responsibility to contact the mentor. Our next meeting is where all the professionals will come in for a kind of meet and greet.”

Other activities include a fund raiser with the Nebraska Planners and a case study competition where the group gets a chance to compete with other AMA student groups from around the country.

“This year Nintendo is sponsoring the case study and they want to revamp some of their marketing. So they give it to AMA students throughout the nation and we do their marketing and research for them. They pick the eight best who then get to compete in front of the Nintendo board. Then they’ll pick whatever marketing plan they like best and implement it into their scheme. So it’s a great opportunity to see the whole start to finish marketing process.”

If you’d like more information on the UNL AMA student organization please contact the Marketing department staff at 472-2316.