marketing

Fundraising for GCC Respiratory Care Club

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I am a sophomore at GCC and one of my majors is Respiratory Care. I am raising funds for the GCC Respiratory Care club by selling holiday chocolates, holiday gift tags and wrap. Healthcare majors are very expensive. Hence, GCC Respiratory Care club helps all respiratory care students to pay for some expenses like CPR certification, mock exam cost, three days’ review sessions, board preparation, trips for conferences, pinning ceremony and poster presentations.

All the money raised by GCC Respiratory club will be spent on the students. America needs more respiratory therapists. So, please help us to raise funds. I am sure most of you will buy chocolates and holiday goodies for your friends and family. I would highly appreciate if you buy some goodies from me as your valuable money will be used to help students. I am proud to announce that GCC Respiratory Club has partnered with “Niagara by Frey Premium Chocolates” to help students. “Niagara by Frey” is a leading fundraiser for countless schools and organizations in Western New York.  “Niagara by Frey” is an all American brand famous for making delicious chocolates and other goodies.

Some of the items that we are selling are:

  • Milk Chocolate Sponge candy $14.00
  • Orange Milk Chocolate Sponge Candy $14.00
  • Dark Chocolate Sponge Candy $14.00
  • Chocolate covered Pretzels $11.00
  • Pecan Caramel Clusters: $10.00
  • Cashew Caramel Clusters $10.00
  • Almond Butter Crunch $10.00
  • Peanut Brittle $15.00
  • Chocolate covered Oreo Cookies $14.00
  • Chocolate Raspberry cups $12.00
  • Peanut Butter cups $12.00
  • Chocolate Caramels $12.00
  • Chocolate Truffles $12.00
  • Chocolate Rounds $12.00
  • Milk Chocolate Miniatures $15.00
  • Holiday golden trees wrap $9.00
  • Red Stripe Wrap $9.00
  • Light bulbs wrap $9.00
  • Santa Claus is coming to Town wrap $9.00
  • Holiday gift tags $5.00

There are coconut clusters, raisin clusters, almond chocolates, chocolate Biscotti Prato, teddy bear, Santa, nutcracker, holiday foiled novelty assortment, chocolate sports car, ornaments, tool kits, dino eggs, various kinds of crème d’ Orange and chocolate locomotive, motorcycle and fire engine. If you want to see the holiday fundraising catalog, then please feel free to contact me. My email address is zfiroze@my.genesee.edu You must order by 26th October, 2018 if you are interested to help GCC Respiratory Club to raise fund for student expenses. Product delivery date is on 30th November, 2018.

 

 

My Time Working For Marcom

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By: Mike Adamczak

For the past couple of weeks, I have had the privilege of being able to work with the wonderful people at the Marketing Communications (MarCom) Department of Genesee Community College, thanks to the Upward Bound Program. In these past few weeks I’ve learned some useful skills that could be used in a future career such as how to create the most professional portrait picture possible, create and collect data from a survey, as well as my most favorite of all, how to fly and take video with a drone. Check out this Awesome Video of the drone following me up the spine at GCC!

The drone was most valuable to me because it allowed me time to talk with Tim Lawton, Online Communications Specialist for GCC and Upward Bound Alumni. While assisting him as the Visual Observer, as well as helping teach three classes on how useful a drone is in advertising; we discussed the importance of why going to GCC would be a great choice to start off when going for a bachelor’s degree and what to look for the most when figuring out which college is the best fit for you.
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As well as assisting in drone flying, I was also given the task of performing a survey of my fellow Upward Bounders. Along with my work study partner Fermina Sanchez, we worked to present original questions on what social platforms are most used today by high school students and which would be best for GCC to advertise on. Our findings are blow!

As part of our work study duties, the Marketing Communications Department at Genesee Community College had us survey 51 of our fellow peers in the TRIO Upward Bound program. The purpose of this survey was to determine which social media platform would be most beneficial for marketing advertisements.

  • The average age demographic of our data set was 15 year olds, with a majority of the answers coming from female students (n=35) as opposed to the male students (n=16). When asked what social media platform was most often used for social interaction, we found the majority of students preferred snapchat (n=32).
  • We found that when browsing the internet, most people do not notice or pay attention to the online ads (n=20).
  • The data showed that the SUNY Website and College Board website were most commonly used for college research (n=19/19).
  • Something interesting that we noticed about the data would be that although a majority of students found themselves spending most of their time on snapchat, colleges would have the most success catering to students personally through emails (n=14).
  • Most students found that the cost of tuition is information that they would most want to be made readily available on a college’s social media profile (n=13).
  • When asked their opinion on whether or not there was a general stigma that community colleges are less rigorous and professional than four year colleges, most students said they agreed or strongly agreed (n=26) or remained neutral (n=22).
  • As expected, most students found that the greatest influence in their life when considering colleges would be their family (n=21), but to our surprise there was also a large amount of students who felt that they had no outside influence and they formed their opinions independently (n=20).
  • Finally, when asked what students found most important to have at a college when making their final decision, the majority said that the college would need a wide variety of academic programs (n=14) and that they would need to have quality instructors and professors (n=14).

For their participation in our survey, each participate was put into a raffle for a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble. During free time, we pulled a winner. Congratulations Karley Greenman and thank you everyone for helping us with our market research!

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Trace George

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By: Jewel Watters, Fashion Merchandising Major

The annual business idea pitch competition is fast approaching us now, and will be here in about two weeks! By this time, all participants should have already signed up for the competition, and should have at least attended one workshop to be able to participate. If you still haven’t attended a workshop, there is only one more left and it will be happening on April 12th during the common hour in T122, and will be about pitch prep.

This competition would be a great first step to making your dreams come true. One of our very own alum, Trace George, opened up his own business after graduating and has had a lot of success ever since. Trace George opened up the VSP Graphing Group Company in 1995, and his business went from a small sign shop in his garage to the successful business it is today.

According to Business First’s Fast Track 50, George’s business is the 10th fastest growing business here in western New York which is a real achievement. George’s company is also the official graphic provider for the Buffalo Bills, and the Sabres which are both amazing achievements.

Hopefully hearing about all the great things Trace George has accomplished for his business since graduating here inspired you, and made you more motivated to do this pitch competition coming up on April 19th! We hope to see you all there, and can’t wait to hear your business ideas! If you have any questions or concerns regarding the pitch competition, you may contact Lina LaMattina at lmlamattina@genesee.edu.

Student Entrepreneurs

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By: Jewel Watters, Fashion Merchandising Major

The annual pitch competition is coming up quickly, and there is only one workshop left for you to attend if you haven’t gone to one of the workshops already, the last workshop will be on April 12th during the common hour in T121 and this workshop will be an Idea Pitch Preparation.

If you are still unsure about whether your business idea is good or not, I’m here to tell you that there is no idea that is stupid, all businesses are creative in its own way, and there are many entrepreneurs out there that are students also just like we are.

There are student entrepreneurs out there that you could research into and learn many great things about. There are student entrepreneurs who have created a fashion company with clothing designed from wet-felting and shibori. There is also a student entrepreneur out there who provides restaurants with computer tablets for guests to pay right from the table. The point is you can make any business that you want to, no idea is stupid or too small.

If you do your research, you will find out many of the things that keep these fellow student entrepreneurs motivated to start a business, and keep it going. Some of these things being students researching founders who are also in the startup phase as well, and being motivated because they want to create a legacy that means something to someone.

If you are interested in looking up more information about what being a student entrepreneur can do for you, or if you are interested in attending the annual pitch competition then come attend the last workshop on April 12th, and come out to the pitch competition on April 19th and get a chance to win a cash prize. Hope to see you all there!

Contact Lina LaMattina for the application form, or any questions.

LMLamattina@genesee.edu

Make Your Dreams a Reality

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By: Jewel Watters, Fashion Merchandising Major

Have you ever thought about opening up your own business sometime within your lifetime, or thought about a business idea that you would love to see come to reality but not knowing what to do about it? Well, help is on the way pretty soon!

Genesee Community College will be hosting a Business Idea Pitch Competition on April 19th in the Conable Technology Building in room T102. This is the place to make your dreams a reality, and a chance to get to watch your dreams come to life. This is a real opportunity to present your business idea to people, and get help to make your dream business happen sooner than later.

If you don’t think that your business idea is good enough to be presented quite yet, there are business workshops happening up until the pitch competition to help guide you and give you more information about opening up your own business.

This pitch competition will also be judging your business ideas and if you win you may be able to win a cash prize, and let’s face it money is a pretty convincing way to get any college student to go to anything.

Attached below is a link to all the information you need to know if you’re thinking about attending the Pitch competition.

https://www.genesee.edu/home/events/businesspitch/

An Interview with Erica Swiatek of Innovate Faster

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By: Jewel Watters, Fashion Merchandising Major

I interviewed our keynote speaker for this year’s Creativity Conference that is coming up on Febraury 28th, 2018. If you are looking to learn more about becoming an entrepreneur, and tips and tricks to help you get there, come to the Creativity Conference!

1) What made you want to open up your own business?

Swiatek says that she actually fell into business, she was working for a consulting business in learning and development and creative studies, and she wanted more than that. Swiatek was approached about doing the Escape Room, and she wanted to do assessments, playing and teaching personality problem solving, and taking over just fell into place.

2) What are your responsibilities as a business owner?

Swiatek says that her responsibilities are pretty much all over the place. There is lots of stuff to do every day involving marketing, paying the rent, creating the Escape Room classes, and usual day to day stuff.

3) What is one piece of advice you would give to someone wanting to become an entrepreneur?

Swiatek says that you should always make sure that you are really passionate about it, because it involves a lot of day to day stuff that you are not going to love, and you will feel like this is not what you wanted, her piece of advice is to always be realistic.

4) How do you exhibit your creativity?

Swiatek says that she exhibits her creativity through playfulness. She tries to be an ambassador at play, she likes to play first learn second. She says it gives her such a different experience, and that she still plays with a slinky toy, always has fun colored nail polish, and likes to showcase her playfulness.

 

Our College Experience

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Hello readers of the GCC Blog,

Our names are Zarina and Sabina, we are two international students from Kazakhstan studying Digital Art at GCC.   We are not good in writing stories about ourselves. Thus we decided to write about GCC and Digital art major.

About GCC. We found this college on Internet while searching colleges with appropriate tuition, fees and location. In GCC we love that we can learn new things that we can apply in the future job. This college gives many opportunities to international students. There are many international events and many clubs that you can join.

About Digital Art. We like going to Digital Art classes, because we love creating new projects that we have never tried to do before. We can express our ideas and share them with other students. There are not many students who study Digital Art major here in GCC. The students help each other. We can practice and develop our skills while attending digital art classes.

About MarCom. We decided to work here because we would like to get new experience. I hope MarCom will give us good experience. We want to know the many sides of Marketing, how it works and decide in what field of future work we would love to work.

We are supposed to graduate in fall 2018. After graduation we hope that we will get a good job.

Donna Rae Sutherland & Her GCC Journey

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If you have ever had Professor Dudkowski for a class then you know what a great teacher he is, and how much he cares about his student’s success. In order to gain more knowledge from something other than our textbook and his lectures, we were given the opportunity to bring in a guest speaker. I thought this was a great idea, and enjoyed the guest speakers that had come in the past weeks, so I decided to ask my boss to come in.

donnaraeIf you don’t know Donna Rae Sutherland, she is the Associate Director of Marketing Communications here at Genesee Community College. For short we refer to this area as MarCom. Donna Rae has worked at GCC for 14 years, and has 35 years of experience in communications, within this time she has never been unemployed.

She graduated from high school in 1978, and made the bold move to San Francisco at the age of 17. Jumping forward to her being back in the Western New York area, she earned a certificate in Graphic Arts from Villa Maria College in 1983, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree from Syracuse University, specifically the Newhouse School, in 1988. During her time at Syracuse she majored in magazine journalism and minored in graphic arts.

Now some of you may still be wondering, what exactly does Donna Rae do?! She works on advertising and promotions for GCC, as well as social media, public relations, student to alumni projects, special projects for the President, and she is also involved in several committees.

During her presentation she talked extensively about how she helped develop the current GCC logo and brand. When Donna Rae first began working at GCC she knew the logo needed updating. It wasn’t appealing to the eye and there were many new online marketing outlets that demanded a new contemporary logo.

One of the first steps in making a new logo was doing in depth research to uncover the positive and negative perceptions of GCC. In a professionally conducted branding study, GCC needed to determine what 3 words the school should be most remembered by. Something that alumni could resonate with, and something others would remember when they heard or saw something about the school. The Branding Steering Committee finally concluded “Beyond Expectations” were perfect words to be GCC’s brand.

Next was to create a new logo and because this institution is commonly referred to GCC and it is affiliated with the State University of New York, they chose SUNY GCC for the new logo. It only made sense to use the name that almost everyone uses when talking about the school.

The old logo.
The new logo!

When you look at any logo you probably don’t think too much about it, but Donna Rae and the Branding Steering Committee put in a lot of time and effort for the GCC brand to be just right. To go with the idea of “Beyond Expectations,” the new logo has three major components: a warm, golden lower shape with a rounded corner which represents the caring faculty and staff; a rigid blue shape with sharp corners that represents the rigors of higher education; and the ‘white tornado’ between these two shapes which represents us, the students who are whirling off the page into future without boundaries. And what’s best is the logo works in all media—from a 12 foot wide billboard to a tweet that is 16×16 pixels!

Donna Rae and the MarCom team are just one part of the reason GCC is and will grow in the future. Like her colleagues around campus in all divisions, she is dedicated to making this school a great place, helping existing and prospective students succeed. Marketing communications is an important part of the success of Genesee Community College and I am excited to be part of the team.

 

Student Support Services Visit Local Business

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By: Christi Lotempio

Celina and Erin from Student Support Services arranged a tour of T-Shirts Ect in Batavia. This is a T-Shirt company located at 37 Center Street in Batavia, or mytshirtsect.com. The company offers screen printing, canvas prints, wall graphics, embroidery, Decals, Banner and so much more. The owner, Brian Kemp, was a graduate of SUNY GCC.

Our group was able to walk through the entire business to view the printing and the embroidery being completed at the time of our tour. We learned about everything from taking a customer’s order, how the T-Shirt is printed or embroidered, and their checks and balance system. Mr.Kemp was very informative and gave us many tips on running an effective business. Some of the most important things he noted were networking, providing great customer service and being honest (The Golden Rule). He was able to share with us some of his marketing ideas, such as the wooden coin (if you find one and you return it to T-Shirt Ect – you get a free T-shirt!) and the logo printed on the sleeve of the left arm of a shirt. He was able to give us a complete outline of being an entrepreneur, and encouraged to think outside of the box to make your company stand out.

Not only was the tour fun but we all got our own shirts. Thanks for the T-Shirts Mr.Kemp!!