The Eller Times, Summer 2004 - Eller Students Lend Marketing Skills to Federal Land Management and Biotechnology


	Summer 2004

Eller Students Lend Marketing Skills to Federal Land Management and Biotechnology

An Eller College leader in bringing the real world to her classroom, Assistant Professor of Marketing Michal Strahilevitz created two new applied learning opportunities in 2004, pairing exceptional undergraduates and MBAs with administrators seeking marketing solutions at the Bureau of Land Management and the UA Institute for Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology.

Las Cienegas National Conservation Area.
Photo courtesy Bureau of Land Management Arizona.

Five Eller marketing students and one environmental studies major teamed up with BLM Planning and Environmental Coordinator Steven Cohn this spring semester to develop communication and outreach materials to showcase the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. The students surveyed twelve BLM constituencies, ranging from private industry, such as ranching, to government agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to public interest organizations like The Nature Conservancy, to identify shared goals and objectives from which partnerships might grow. They also provided in-depth analysis of the existing Las Cienegas Web site and prototyped a new one. Cohn proclaimed the students’ work “excellent,” adding that the students “were very professional, highly interested and committed through the end, taking the project very seriously and giving us something great.”

Four MBAs and four undergraduates became part of one of the UA’s major investments in its future when they collaborated in an extensive review of the Institute for Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology’s marketing programs. Working with interim director, Dr. Vicki Chandler and director of communications Mick Jensen, the students logged over 500 hours spring semester, evaluating and revising existing materials, benchmarking against competitors, and developing new marketing content, including a Web site template and brochure. “The students were bright, motivated, had terrific ideas and created a nice product,” said Dr. Chandler. According to MBA Carolyn Kraus the students are equally pleased. “We applied our classroom learning to an exciting industry we knew little about. It was so valuable. I’m glad we did it.”