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In February, George Mason University’s chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) hosted a successful “Flowers for Friends” fundraiser to support professional marketing events, including their attendance at the annual AMA Intercollegiate Conference (ICC).
The ICC is open to undergraduate students from schools with an active AMA-affiliated collegiate chapter and is an opportunity for aspiring marketers to nurture their professional growth and to evolve together as practitioners of marketing excellence. It’s a three-day event consisting of transformative experiences—the finals round of case competitions (where teams develop and propose an innovative marketing strategy in response to a detailed challenge provided by the case co-sponsors on a national stage), chapter activities, career preparation programming, and networking.
A revitalized George Mason University AMA-affiliated chapter was founded in September 2023 by Costello College of Business students Jessica Bahou and Meryem Boukhriss, with the support of Costello marketing faculty. The co-founders wanted to create a space where business students at George Mason could grow, connect, and make the most of their college experience. True to the mission of the AMA, the university’s student-led chapter is a community of future marketers and dedicated professionals who work, teach, and study in the field, seeking answers that will help drive business growth and elevate the role of marketing in achieving it.
February’s fundraiser was intended as the start of a longer-term fundraising effort by the students to self-fund their participation in AMA conference and competition events and experiences like the ICC. The “Flowers for Friends” event was held on Wilkins Plaza in Fairfax the day before Valentine’s Day, and was made possible through the efforts of dedicated chapter members Caitlin Suchotinunt, Abril Rodriguez, Manal Chaali, Mannal Javeed, Alex Maldonado, and Jonathan Harris. These students played key roles in planning and organizing the fundraiser, including the in-person sale of flower bouquets and the design of digital and out-of-home (OOH) promotional materials.
The students raised $119, close to 60% of their initial goal of $200, before selling out of bouquets. This real-world experience gave them an opportunity to apply their classroom-acquired knowledge across a variety of disciplines into practice. Aside from managing the budgeting challenges that resulted from rising and higher-than-expected conference and travel expenses, the students gained first-hand experience in word-of-mouth and social media marketing, direct sales, and fundraising.
For more information about this young and thriving AMA chapter, please contact their faculty advisor, Niki Vlastara, assistant professor of marketing.