Massry School of Business Sees Revival of American Marketing Association Chapter
ALBANY, N.Y. (Sept. 17, 2024) — UAlbany faculty and students have brought a chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) back to campus, with the hopes of providing students with networking and career opportunities needed to succeed in marketing careers.
The return of the AMA, a professional organization that offers undergraduate students opportunities to attend conferences and workshops, was led by Massry School of Business Director of Career Services Deirdre Sweeney, UAlbany graduate Elizabeth Adebisi and junior Angelica Gonzalez. The UAlbany chapter will join more than 350 collegiate chapters nationwide within the AMA.
UAlbany was home to an AMA chapter before the pandemic. Sweeney believes that COVID-19 and the graduation of student leaders led to its end, a familiar story for many collegiate organizations.
Now, the AMA chapter is restarting and ready for a new phase of student success.
“We have a lot of students interested in the marketing field and concentrating in marketing,” Sweeney said. “They are really excited about the idea and eager to learn more about the marketing field and to have a group that would cater specifically to the marketing field.”
The Massry School of Business offers a concentration in marketing for business administration students and is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, making business and marketing highly competitive tracks at UAlbany.
Gonzalez, UAlbany AMA president, says the newly reinstated chapter has given her a sense of community among her marketing peers.
“No other organization on campus is catering to marketing students,” said Gonzalez, a business administration and accounting major with a concentration in marketing. “Our hope is that students will leave with either a new network of professionals that they have connected with through us, a better professional brand appearance, a new friend, or, in the best-case scenario, a marketing internship.”
Restarting the chapter gives students in AMA access to national AMA chapter professionals, too. Four experts from the Capital Region professional chapter joined Gonzalez in speaking to around 50 prospective members at the chapter’s first general interest meeting on Sept. 12. Students had the opportunity to connect with the speakers to explore opportunities in the competitive field after a short — and equally competitive — trivia game.
The chapter will host coffee chats for students to network with local marketers and provide events, such as panels of professionals and professors. The first panel event is set for Oct. 8 with UAlbany Assistant Professor of Marketing Hillary Wiener.
AMA is open to any student, regardless of major. Prospective students can join the new chapter on MyInvolvement.