In January, the East Tennessee State University AMA Chapter was ranked in the top 10 finalists of the 2023 American Marketing Association (AMA) Collegiate Case Compositions. As finalists, they defeated about 100 chapters in the US alone and over 500 chapters globally.

With approximately 2 months of preparation and only 7 members to the team, the ETSU AMA Chapter earned a place on the board alongside schools twice its size or larger. Some include one of the largest student associations in the Faculty of Business Administration, Rio Pedras Chapter at the University of Puerto Rico, and the largest Student Professional Organization AMA Chapter at Temple University with 225+ members.

Jenne Wiegert, vice president of the ETSU AMA chapter, expressed her excitement about being qualified for the next round of the competition. They will now move on to compete in the ICC on March 30 located in New Orleans. Having been in the ETSU AMA chapter since she was a freshman, she has been on the team for 2 years, now a sophomore.

“I did not think we were going to get this far,” Wiegert expressed. “I feel so honored and humbled to be able to represent ETSU in this way and being able to show that marketing is a very fascinating subject, there’s so much you can do with it and so much you can learn from it.”

After some setbacks of losing members and health issues, the chapter faced challenges when the plan only had just begun. Staying ever motivated by passion, the team proved their endurance until the end.

“Once we were like, ‘okay, we just have to get our plan going,’ and started going with it, it did feel like it was moving a lot faster than we were prepared for,” Wiegert mentioned.

Dividing and conquering, the team strived for success and rarely took time off the project; Wiegert mentioned she was working restlessly even during winter break.

AMA Chapter member Joseph Hancock oversaw the research while Wiegert was in charge of revision and formatting. Hancock expressed that ETSU was small compared to the other schools, but even with fewer numbers, they brought honor to ETSU’s name.

“We are so overwhelmed and blown away that we are at this point in our second year,” Expressed AMA Faculty Advisor, Michelle Sullivan, overseer of the ETSU AMA chapter.

For more information on ETSU’s AMA chapter, visit www.estu.edu/cbat/mgmtmkt/ama.php. To get involved with the AMA chapter, contact AMA Faculty Advisor Michelle Sullivan at sullivac@etsu.edu.