Chatham University’s Business & Entrepreneurship Department would like to congratulate Chatham Marketing Association (CMA) for placing as Finalists in the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) International Collegiate Case Competition! CMA brought home an outstanding number of awards including:

• Third place finish in the International Collegiate Case Competition (out of 350 collegiate chapters)
• Tenth place in the Small School Division (out of about 240 chapters), and was specifically recognized for its exemplary performance in planning, communications, and fundraising
• Student Christina Fortunato won Student Marketer of the Year runner-up (out of 30+ candidates). The award was based upon her series of essay responses, faculty advisor and employer recommendations, transcripts, and her AMA and applied marketing accomplishments.
• Student Lynzy Groves won 2nd place in the AMA’s Community and Social Impact Scholarship competition. This is also a highly prestigious and competitive award that is determined by her essay submission, faculty advisor recommendation, transcript, and evidence of her activities that demonstrate how she puts her marketing skills to work to make a difference in the world. Given Lynzy’s extensive non-profit work, she earned the judges’ admiration and recognition!

This case competition, according to the AMA, is a yearlong event that brings together top marketing students to work on a marketing challenge submitted by a sponsoring organization. The case sponsor provides a detailed marketing problem for which it is looking to gain the perspective of AMA’s best students, who compete by developing a marketing strategy in a nationally recognized competition. This year, student teams were challenged to devise a new marketing strategy and tactical marketing program for the Ice Breakers brand within The Hershey Company. There were 92 case submissions in total judged by a pool of academic and practitioner marketing professionals, and Chatham University placed in the top ten to qualify as finalists! Other university finalists include the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Ferris State University, Temple University, Texas State University, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the University of Wisconsin (Eua Claire and Whitewater campuses), the University of Pennsylvania, and University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley Edinburg.

Finalists then presented their final marketing strategies, a 40 page case submission followed by a question and answer session with the Hershey’s team, at the 38th Annual International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana from March 17-19, 2016.

Chatham University would like to congratulate the following undergraduate students for contributing to the case competition:

• Christina Fortunato, President of CMA, Senior, BA in International Business
• Britken (Eleonor) Nilsson, Vice President of CMA, Junior, International Exchange Student
• Lynzy Groves, Vice President of Social Impact of CMA, Senior, BA in Management
• Alice Shy, Vice President of Communications of CMA, Junior, BA in Media Arts
• Dana Eastman, Vice President of Membership of CMA, Senior, Undeclared
• Lauren Battles, Senior, BA in Marketing
• Elina Lankinen, Junior, BA in Marketing
• Katrina Hawkins, Senior, BA in International Business
• Ryan Bunker, Junior, BA in Management
• Katherine Sclabassi, Sophomore, BA in Management

These students were guided by Chatham Associate Professor of Marketing, Deborah DeLong, Ph.D. “I am really proud of these students,” reflects Dr. DeLong. “They have worked hard all year, produced terrific events and competition submissions, and are now seeing the positive results of their efforts as well as growing personally and professionally. I am already thinking about how next year will be even better, but for now we celebrate their success! Go CMA!”

Chatham University’s Business & Entrepreneurship Department is proud to recognize the successes of Chatham Marketing Association. The Department supports student initiatives by hosting regular networking events and workshops to promote learning opportunities and career development. To read more on CMA’s mission and their year-round efforts, please visit the Chatham Marketing Association website