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In the spring of 2022, students in instructor of marketing Heather Boler’s marketing promotions class put the principles and strategies that form the foundation for the Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô College of Business into practice. Using an interactive project for a real-world company, two groups of students in Boler’s class created marketing plans for the Â鶹ӳ»­Ó°Òô College of Business. This interactive learning experience was started by Boler and has been in place since she began her tenure with the college in 2017. Previous classes have partnered with national and local companies including CHRISTUS and Chick-fil-A. Her goal with each of these projects has been to connect her students with a level of experience that goes beyond the constraints of a traditional classroom setting. With guest lectures, meetings with college officials and workshops throughout, this class executed the project just as a strategic marketing consultant group would.  

At the end of the project, the groups presented their marketing plans to the college’s administration and as a result, two students received internship offers. The two selected interns, Christine Osborne, a senior double major in marketing and english, and Werner Siegmund, a senior Marketing major, have been working throughout the summer with the College of Business Marketing and Communications Office to implement sections of their marketing plans and see the real-world implications of their planning. The interns have worked closely with the college’s marketing staff, Elizabeth Newman, senior coordinator for the college’s Marketing and Communications Office, as well as Josh Wilson, marketing coordinator.

“Christine and Werner have become invaluable members of our team. The ideas that each have brought forth have breathed new energy into our college’s marketing strategies. It has been so rewarding and exciting to be able to provide an opportunity for each to gain experience and see their projects come to life from conception to finish,” said Newman.  

Siegmund’s primary project has been the creation and launch of a podcast for the College of Business.

“My favorite part has been actually working – getting to work on marketing in general,” Siegmund remarks about his first internship experience. “But for the podcast, my favorite part has been trying to come up with ideas on what segments the podcast should have or what should go into the creation of the podcast.”

Siegmund’s hard work can be seen on the College of Business podcast which launched in late August. Its second full-length episode published on October 2nd titled “Know Your Major: HR.” This episode takes a deep dive into the world of human resources with instructor, Ellen Zimmerman. Zimmerman brings a wealth of real-world experience into the classroom via her previous career and current role as CEO of her own leadership consulting group. Previous episodes have featured student guests who were led in discussion about college life by the podcast’s hosts, advertising communications major Emily Alvarez and marketing major Diana Martinez.

As it grows, Siegmund and the college’s marketing team hope that it will become a source of information, entertainment and community for past, present and future students interested in business at LU.

Osborne has been working on events and social media for the College of Business, which were key components of her team’s plan.

“It's amazing to have been given the opportunity to see the plan that we worked on all semester become a reality. Most of the time you finish an assignment in class and it’s over, but not this –– I’ve gotten to see the fruits of my labor not only working on the plan but also putting it into place,” she reflected.

The College of Business Week of Welcome, which took place during the second week of the fall 2022 semester, was created as a new engagement initiative by the CoB marketing team. This was one of the objectives within her team’s project. Another objective of the plan can be seen through the college’s new social media campaign called the ‘Find Yourself Campaign.’ This initiative will help highlight the academic offerings of the college featuring info, faculty profiles, career placement statistics, student stories and other information about each discipline within the College of Business. Osborne also has been an asset on projects created by the college’s marketing team that fall outside of those developed during the class.  

Both Siegmund and Osborne will continue their internships until the end of Fall 2022. They will be working to continue and create new projects for the College of Business such as creating content for the COB’s new Twitter account, creating new podcast episodes and ideas, establishing a marketing & communications student club to help with branding projects, podcast episodes, promos, influencing and more. They will also help plan and execute events such as Cardinal View and Business Week which will both take place the week of Nov. 7-12th. The college is excited to continue offering these internship opportunities in the coming semesters.