By Kiyanna Noel
From their humble start of barely placing in competitions, to now being in the top 20 marketing chapters, the Plattsburgh American Marketing Association is becoming a force to be reckoned with at the American Marketing Association.
Three members of the Plattsburgh American Marketing Association attended this year’s convention in New Orleans from March 29 to April 2 and were determined to represent the school and bring back some wins.
President of Plattsburgh’s American Marketing Association Chapter and marketing major Angelina Soberal recognized that this club gave her an opportunity to find her footing at Plattsburgh as well as find a group of people she can connect with. Joining the club as a first-year was a way for her to start her marketing experience on campus, but COVID-19 put a dent in her plans because she didn’t love the idea of online meetings. However, after returning to campus and attending her first conference in Chicago, she fell in love with AMA.
“That’s the thing when you go to the conference, everyone’s chapter has, like, so many people who come and they’re all so passionate, and they all do so well. And in the past, we’ve always gotten two awards, the Internal Outstanding Chapter Performance and Internal/external Communications and Chapter Planning,” Soberal said. “And this year, we really wanted to grow our chapter and make our chapter really good, so we put in a lot of work.”
Their hard work truly paid off after returning to Plattsburgh with five awards: Honorable mention in marketing week competition, Semi-finalists in the Wall Street Journal case study and Outstanding Performance in Professional Development, Internal/external communications, and Chapter Planning.
Just like joining any club, it’s about putting yourself out there and allowing yourself to be open to new opportunities and people.
Business Administration major and Director of Fundraiser Gina Holton, who also attended the conference, acknowledged how good of an opportunity it is to be involved in AMA.
“I joined at this time last semester when I was a freshman and I got the email about openings for e-board,” Holton said. “I saw the email and I kind of put it off because you know, it seems like a responsibility. I don’t know if I want to have a responsibility, but then I realized that I needed a resume builder and I needed to get involved on campus. So I decided to apply, got the position, went to the clubs, went through all the motions, and everything was great.”
Soberal, a senior, is now graduating and excited about going into a career in marketing after joining AMA.
“I would say, before I joined AMA, I was not confident. I had no business skills or anything,” Soberal said. “Now that I’m finishing up with the AMA, I’m a totally brand new person. I used to have crippling anxiety when [it came to] public speaking. I can public speak so easily now. I had anxiety about emailing people. I mean, I email everyone now. I have almost 300 connections on LinkedIn just from both conferences. I’m really confident going in to graduating and going into a career now.”
The marketing club is looking to expand their e-board position and general members as well as “help students find their passions” in the marketing field.
“Get involved and watch yourself grow,” Holton said.
Meetings are every Monday in the Amnesty room at 6:30 p.m. For more information on applying to be on the AMA e-board email Soberal at asobe003@plattsburgh.edu
