Smith School's American Marketing Association Chapter Receives National Recognition

For the fifth year in a row, the American Marketing Association (AMA) chapter at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business returned from the International Collegiate AMA Conference with awards. Monisha Tripathi, terpAMA president, accepted the awards at the closing banquet in front of 1,300 students and faculty advisors from throughout the United States and neighboring countries. This year’s conference was held in New Orleans in March 2009.

terpAMA was recognized for outstanding marketing communications, community service and professional development. The chapter’s Web site, www.terpama.com, received honorable mention. Chapter officers responsible for these areas were Suzanne Howard, Kristine Trinchere, Lauren Moscone, Vishney Ambalavanar, Vidya Sathyamoorthy, and Aarushi Poddar, and Monisha Tripathi. Faculty advisors for the chapter are Rosellina Ferraro, assistant professor of marketing, and Mary Harms, marketing lecturer.

At the conference, Tripathi presented at the Collegiate Fundraising Session on “How to Write a Funding Proposal” and Harms presented a paper on the Smith School's "Design and Innovation Undergraduate Fellows Program" at the faculty session. Students attending the conference from Maryland included Chris Coraggio, Kelsey Cohen, Alex McCord, Caitlin Talty, Steven Feiner, Adam Saunders, Lauren Tallody, and Tripathi.

terpAMA meets on a weekly basis throughout the academic year bringing in marketing professionals from a variety of fields to address members. As a part of providing its members real-world experience and also serving the community, the terpAMA assisted the town of Chevy Chase, MD, with research for their new carbon dioxide reduction project, as part of the Chevy Chase Challenge. The students come up with a strategic plan based on extensive marketing surveys to encourage homeowners to undertake energy audits and contribute towards making their city more environmentally friendly. "Students not only benefitted from the hands-on experience of conducting a focus group but they both came away from the project with more awareness and knowledge of the green movement and the challenges marketers will face in encouraging others to be involved," remarked Harms.