Erin DeGregorio ’16
Since aspiring for excellence and achievement goes beyond the classroom’s learning environment, students and professors of the School of Business participated in the 5th Annual Marketing Department Colloquium on Friday, February 12.
As per tradition, this event is held towards the beginning of the spring semester, where students and faculty alike can showcase and present their previous or ongoing research projects to the academic community. The students’ presentations are typically research papers that they have completed for various marketing courses; independent studies they worked on with faculty members; or summer research projects that were sponsored by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA). CURCA’s Summer Scholars Program endorses inquiry and creativity by supporting faculty-student collaborations and funding academic projects and activities during the summer break.
Seven presentations took place this year, allowing the crowded Snyder Hall dining room to take in and learn from the wealth of knowledge that is available right here on our small campus.
Inspired by her current marketing internship in the School of Business, Heather Leo ’17 conducted an independent study with Cheryl Buff, Ph.D., which looked into building awareness for the School of Business and modernizing communication platforms through four new social media accounts and display screens on Siena Hall’s third floor. The goal of her project, titled “Emotional Branding and Social Media Usage: Towards an Understanding of the ‘School of Business’ Brand,” was to determine how students wanted School of Business information communicated to them throughout the academic year, which would in-turn provide insight into their emotional connections with the school.
Marketing professor and second-year doctoral student at Case Western Reserve University Anthony Scardillo also shed some light on his Summer 2015 research study, “Are We Having Fun Yet? What Factors Influence Senior-Level Managers to Have FUN at Work.” His research focused on fun in the workplace – or rather the lack thereof as he discovered through his 25 interviews– and improving the workplace environment by creating fun and engaging cultures for employees. Scardillo will continue to work on this research by conducting a quantitative study from his current findings this upcoming May.
“Become a protégé. Find jobs that will have meaningful work and that will have some meaning to you. [It’s not always important] to get a good paycheck,” recommended Scardillo to the students joining the workforce in the near future.
No matter the topic or specific area of research, all the student participants have further improved their analytical and communication skills through their research projects, which will go a long way in their current academic careers and their future professional careers.
“We believe the colloquium has been a very rewarding and interactive learning experience for the participants,” said Jie Sun, assistant professor of marketing and colloquium organizer.
