2020-2021 AMA Foundation Collegiate Scholarship Winners

Social Impact

Diversity Leadership

How has your scholarship affected you in your personal and professional life?  

I was completely humbled when I heard I had been given this year’s Social Impact Scholarship. This money will allow me to focus my time on unpaid volunteer opportunities without the added stress of losing wages. Professionally, I can help my AMA chapter succeed with additional awards and accolades. I am so grateful for this scholarship and granted an award that goes so far beyond marketing.

What advice would you give to other college students who are looking to make a positive impact in their community?

Every step matters! Making a positive impact doesn’t have to be something grandeur and large-scale. It can start from small random acts of kindness. The amazing thing about social impact is its ripple effect—one act of “good” can start a chain reaction of such positive and uplifting experiences for an entire community. Don’t be afraid to make that step!

How has your scholarship affected you in your personal and professional life?

Just like many small businesses and my fellow students, COVID-19 has hit my family hard. This scholarship is a huge help in paying for my tuition. I am also really excited to be able to add this scholarship to my resume/professional portfolio. It just means a lot to me personally to be recognized.

Tell us a bit about the work you did to receive the scholarship. What impact did it have on your friends, your campus, or the community?

Through AMA, I had the incredible opportunity to lead a large team of talented students providing pro-bono consulting services to local businesses in the Bloomington community. As multiple small businesses struggled during the pandemic, we sought to help them recover by marketing their services. During the last semester, we were able to work with three different small businesses, develop and implement marketing outreach plans for them and form long-lasting relationships for the future.

How can marketing do good?

I feel that marketing often gets a bad reputation for being manipulative and misleading, however, that’s a result of poor marketing practices. When marketing is used for good, it brings people together, which is something that we need especially during times like these. Just like most things in life, there’s a good side and a bad side. But we decide which side we want to focus on. By using marketing for its true purpose, which I believe is to connect people with things they are passionate about, we can put an end to the age of misinformation and deception that has emerged in marketing.

Tell us a bit about the work you did to receive the scholarship. What impact did it have on your friends, your campus, or the community?

Every social impact project and volunteering opportunity I participate in revolves around empowering others in the local and larger communities. My UW-Whitewater AMA Social Impact VP of Internal Operations position allowed me to work with Enactus, a social entrepreneurship non-profit organization at UW-Whitewater. I was able to become a project director of The Quetzal Collaborative, which partners with a school in Antigua, Guatemala, called La Unión. This school provides and empowers indigenous Guatemalan women with the opportunity to participate in entrepreneurial programs.

How has your scholarship affected you in your personal and professional life?

This scholarship has made my personal and professional life much better. The Diversity Leadership Scholarship enhanced my resume and LinkedIn, which could lead to new opportunities. With the challenges of the current pandemic and everyday life, this scholarship has provided me with alleviation of financial stress. Receiving this scholarship enhanced my professional image, made finances easier on my family and upheld the reputation of Texas State AMA members being great marketers. 

What advice would you give to other college students who are looking to make a positive impact in their community?

Be the one who pulls yourself out of your comfort zone. I came to Bowling Green raised by a single mother born in the Philippines. After experiencing discrimination throughout high school, I found myself having second thoughts on going for a degree at all. Unprepared and new to the experience, it was easy to think nothing would come from college but a fancy piece of paper after four years of anxiety and stress. However, after an experience where I realized college campuses are by no means are free of xenophobia, I realized that there was no security in hunkering down. I felt an obligation to make something out of my experiences and help others and to make sure no one else had to hear the same slurs I did.

What has it meant to you to be part of the AMA?  

I would have never imagined the impact one organization could have on a person’s life, but the AMA has truly changed my life for the better. It has taught me valuable leadership skills, perseverance, determination and professional development skills. Not only that, but it has challenged me as an individual and has taught me important life lessons that I will carry with me in the future. I have met so many fantastic people, from my advisors to my peers, as well as people from across the globe. Since joining AMA, I has substantially improved my skills as a marketer and presented me with numerous opportunities. To be a part of such a distinguished organization is so awe-inspiring that words cannot describe how thankful I am to be a part of something that positively impacts many lives.

How do you think that marketing can be used for good? 

Marketing can be used to raise awareness for important causes and issues. For example, my state was hit with two back-to-back devastating hurricanes last year. Marketing efforts were able to increase awareness of these disasters long after being covered in the media or on the news. Through marketing efforts, people were able to keep the catastrophic images in people’s minds to promote donations, support and service efforts that were critical to helping the community get back on its feet. Many causes like this would gain no traction if not for marketing. This can be applied to non-profit organizations, government initiatives, startup businesses and more.

Tell us a bit about the work you did to receive the scholarship. What impact did it have on your friends, your campus, or the community? 

The work I did to receive the diversity leadership scholarship focused on strengthening organizations within the business school at my university. I am the current Vice President of SheEOs, President of the Hofstra American Marketing Association and the treasurer of the DECA chapter. Through all these organizations, I developed useful and effective professional development events that exposed students to different fields through panels from fields such as entertainment marketing all the way to financial technology. I brought the organizations from a meager 10 members to having over 50 who attend every week.