Testimonials

2023 Team

Being a part of the Brand Marketing Team provided me with invaluable experience that has prepared me for success in the “real world.” It gave me the opportunity to explore different aspects of marketing and advertising, from conducting research, to developing a media strategy and designing creative material. The knowledge and skills that I gained made me grow as a student, a professional, and as a leader. I learned a great deal about managing a team and remaining consistent when it comes to quality even during high-pressure situations. Seeing the amazing campaign we created and being able to present it made it all even more rewarding. Speaking of presenting, I was able to enhance my presentation skills and further develop my stage presence.

I am grateful for the amazing and hard-working people that I have met and worked with, and was inspired by their passion. Many have become really close friends. Being surrounded by dedicated individuals makes working long hours less stressful. In fact, we looked forward to our next meeting.

This was undoubtedly the most rewarding experience I’ve had in my academic career thus far.

Lola Beber, President / Presenter / Co-Director

I have said this before and I will say it again, being on this team has been the best experience of my college career. I have learned and grown so much, not only from the work I did, but from working alongside the most talented marketing students at Pace. This may sound cheesy, but for me, the greatest benefit of being a member of the team was the lasting impact it had on me. I mean this in 2 ways. First, the relationships I built. I have developed valuable friendships with many of the team members. The late nights, the delirium, and the laughs truly made us all so close, and that is something I will hold close to my heart forever. Each member has impacted me in some way, and the fact that we will no longer work together next year makes me very sad. Second, being on the team made my love for creating campaigns and working on a team even stronger. It’s a dream of mine to come back one day and be an advisor on Pace’s Brand Marketing Team. If I was never on the team, I would have never known that. I am also very competitive and will not accept the fact that we did not bring Pace a win. So much so, that I want to come back and win as a Professor!

Overall, I have grown so much as an individual and a professional by being on this team. Prepared is an understatement to describe how I feel about entering the “real-world.” Let me put it to you this way: the “marketing coordinator” position I hold now is easy to me. It is not challenging. In fact, it makes me miss the late nights and the grind that comes with being on the Brand Marketing Team. I value this experience so much and I am going to miss it dearly.

Francesca Saracino, COO / Presenter / Co-Director

I love this team so much that I do not think I can write this without getting emotional. The greatest benefit has been the joy I experienced working with two mentors who have changed my life, as well as peers that I now call my best friends.

When I first decided I wanted to try to join the team, I never imagined having a year like this. I never thought I could present, and I never thought I would be selected as a department executive. It is safe to say that I have grown more in the last year than I ever have. This program seriously shapes you into the best version of yourself and makes you a professional, I feel that heavily. I loved working with everyone, but working until 4 AM with Lola, Francesca, and Professor Nankin are the moments I will look back on when I think about college... as they were also the most rewarding and fun times I ever had. I was pushed to work the hardest I ever have in these moments, and they have instilled even more of a drive and passion than I had prior.

I do not want it to be over.... and am struggling to accept that it is. The best moment was at the end when we pitched at the competition. We walked off the stage knowing we put everything into this, and I am so proud of the team. If I could go back in time, I would not change one thing in this campaign. We produced something great, as well as something we are confident in and have so much passion for. That makes us winners.

To summarize, the greatest benefit was being able to work with this group of people. I now have close friends who share the same passion as me. Also, having two mentors that I look up to so much alongside and working hands-on with us was inspiring. I learned so much from both of you and am so lucky and grateful to have life-long mentors. I will always stay in touch.

Kaylie Shapiro, Executive Director - Media / Presenter

The benefits of this team are endless. I have made connections and expanded my network, I feel so much better prepared doing job interviews, and I feel like a real advertising professional. I feel like I really know what I am talking about and can bring something to the table at my future jobs. It feels as though I have crossed over from student, to a working professional.

Although the benefits I listed earlier and so important, the benefit I most value are the friendships I have created. Some of the people on this team have become my closest friends. These are individuals who inspire me to do better every single day. There is a quote that goes “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room”. I never really understood that until this experience. I was always so excited for every opportunity I got to connect with my peers. They have taught me more in the last nine months than I have learned all of college. My friendships with these people are life-long and that is something I am eternality grateful for.
I always joked to the rest of team that Brand Marketing team felt like having a crush on someone. I thought about the team all day long, when I wasn’t with other team members I felt lonely, and when I was out I had noticed myself wanting to get home to work on it. It was stressful, tedious, but it gave me the thrill of a lifetime.

This team really does make you feel the highest highs and lowest lows. I can safely say I put my blood sweat and tears into this experience and I could not be prouder of myself and our team.

Esha Tottempudi, Executive Director - Account Planning

The greatest benefit in being a member on this team was being able to connect commitment to dedication. I remember Professor Nankin asking me the difference between commitment and dedication during my interview last spring. I defined commitment as the promise to always show up when needed, and to make something your #1 priority. I defined dedication as what makes commitment easier. I explained that dedication is when the passion and love for what you’re doing is so great, that it makes prioritizing it blissful. This team taught me how challenging keeping a commitment can be, especially under high pressure environments. However, I slowly but surely began to love this team and everything we stood for…. which made my ability to commit my time to it easier. I will forever carry this lesson of connecting passion to work ethic.
Matt Schneider, Associate Director - Media / Producer

The experience and the peers are undeniable benefits of being a member of the team. No matter what our score is, I would not change a single experience or minute I had on the team. I look forward to taking what I have learned and applying my experiences into my work, towards my growth, and to continue working hard to achieve the best work I can put forward. The mentorship you, professors, and the team has provided me is inarguably the best experience I have had in all of my college experience.
Rachael Schneider, Associate Director - Creative

One year ago, I had no idea what direction life was going for me. I had figured I would work in music or start a business of some kind but I never had anything that truly resonated with my heart and soul. It was not until I took what I would consider to be my first real marketing class where I learned about the world of advertising. This led me to discover the Pace Brand Marketing Team where I believed I could acquire all the skills necessary to be a professional in the world of adverting. That thought was an understatement as to how much the brand marketing team experience would change my life.

Through the team I was able to get something most people can only hope for during their college experience. I was gifted with not one but two amazing mentors who have been in the business and have years of knowledge and experience, but more importantly, care about each student on the team in hopes to see them become extremely successful both on the brand marketing team and one day in the real world. In addition, the students on the team you are surrounded with are not only hard-working dedicated individuals who share a similar mindset to you, but are people you didn’t know would become some of your best friends from Pace. We didn’t just grow as individuals during the experience but we grew together as friends which was something I never expected.

The biggest takeaway of all though was the knowledge and skills that we all gained from this challenge. As someone who now knows that they want to work in the world of advertising, I can confidently say that this experience gave me a good understanding as to what different parts of an agency look like. It was also amazing to see how our idea seeds transformed into original creative concepts and mind blowing below the line media ideas. The knowledge and experience from the brand marketing team was far greater than any internship experience I could have ever had. I am truly grateful that I was a part of the team, but it is bittersweet that we are all moving on into the professional world from what was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Bruce Macchione, Executive Director - Creative

I feel the greatest benefit was definitely everything that I learned. I learned so much about not only media and marketing/advertising, but also about the value of being a good team member. Through the Brand Marketing Team, I was able to see and live through the process of creating a campaign in depth, step by step. Due to this, I feel this experience has helped me become confident in my skills and confident in what I can bring to the table. Through this I was also able to further discover my passions within marketing and know what direction I would want to take. Being placed in the media department was a blessing in disguise because with this I was able to learn so much more about it and see how much I truly enjoy media; it is without a doubt a new passion I have gained.

In seeing the other teams compete, I was able to see the positive difference in our team compared to others and that is all thanks to the mentors we had during this whole experience. You guys, Professor Nankin and Dr. C, are the reason we know what we know and were able to deliver the quality that we did. Personally, even though we got second, I will always see us as number one due to our difference in mentorship and what was delivered because of that. You guys taught us to go deeper than the surface and due to that we shined. Thank you.

Bri Caceres, Media

The greatest benefit I ever got from the Brand Marketing Team was learning from my peers. I learned true leadership skills from my creative director, Bruce and from our leader, Lola. I learned a lot about creativity from the other members in the creative department such as from Anna designing the graphics, Rachel for directing the PowerPoint and designing the slides, and from John with thinking more outside the box. From others such as Esha, Kaylie, and Matt, I learned more of the directing the ads, being confident on what you are selling or answering, and how to look out for little things that will pay out in a big way such as Esha reading up on the judges and knowing who liked what.

Ethan Wu, Creative

I gained invaluable experiences in working with people of different personalities and skillsets on the Brand Marketing Team. In any workplace, there are those you build closer relationships with and others you see primarily as coworkers. This experience proved to be a valuable learning opportunity, providing me with a glimpse into what it would be like in a real-world setting. From day one, everyone was dedicated to the task at hand, going above and beyond to ensure success.

Volunteering and taking initiative became second nature to me as I witnessed my colleagues wearing multiple hats in the workplace. However, I would say the greatest benefit of working on the Brand Marketing Team was gaining insight into the components of the plans book. I learned how to calculate CPM impressions, conduct in-depth account planning research, develop a campaign based on the brand, and make a layout of a commercial. The experience of having a campaign to showcase to potential job recruiters is extremely exciting and rewarding.

Thank you, Professor Nankin and Professor Chiagouris for an incredible year with the Brand Marketing Team. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to applying the knowledge I have gained to my future jobs.

Erika Hostrop, Associate Director - Account Planning

It’s hard to name one single benefit as the greatest in being a member of the team. I think in all, the greatest benefit is the way that it prepares you to become a professional in the marketing field. Of course, I missed out on the first semester, but when I’ve spoken to connections in the agency world about the team, they affirm just how accurate this experience is to work in a full-service agency. I feel like I was able to take all my academic knowledge and apply it to the real world before I even graduated. That preparation is invaluable, and I believe this experience will help set me apart from competition when applying to jobs. I feel more confident in myself and in my own abilities as a young professional in marketing

Anna Wilke, Creative / Presenter

The greatest benefit of being a member of the Brand Marketing Team was the immersive hands-on experience. I didn’t just learn how to create a campaign from beginning to end, but I faced the real challenges professionals usually experience out there. My favorite part was discovering what I truly want to do after graduating. At the beginning I thought I wanted to be part of the creative department and I was very nervous when I found out I was going to be in the media department. I ended up realizing that all the creativity in me fits more into creating paid, owned, and earned media strategies and that I enjoy creating marketing activation a lot to the point of wanting to pursue that in the future.

Zoila Moran Mendez, Media

I would say the greatest benefit of being a member of this team was to be a part of the community this team fostered and learn from other members. There were so many people on the team who genuinely cared very deeply about the project. It was very motivating to be around people who were willing to put everything aside for the team and put their unique skills to work with a joined goal. I was glad to be able to play my role, bringing ideas to the table which others built upon and expanded on. I’ve always valued teamwork and brainstorming so it was nice to be able to put that into action for a marketing campaign.

John Furtuna, Creative