Marketing students have role in NC State’s Earth Week activities

April 21, 2008 – The start of Earth Week today at North Carolina State University marks the culmination of a semester-long project for two groups of College of Management students.

About 40 students in the Integrated Marketing Communications (BUS 465) class taught by Claudia Kimbrough, and members of Net Impact, a student organization based at the college, are hosting activities as part of the university's first week-long extension of its traditional Earth Day celebration. The Earth Week activities reflect the university's Year of Energy focus.

• Personal Energy - Wednesday, April 23, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Brickyard: a number of activities hosted by BUS 465 marketing students, highlighting the important connection between energy and individual behavior. They will also be selling bracelets that provide a discount from selected vendors during Earth Week, with proceeds supporting NC State’s Earth Week fund.
• “Energize Your Future,” a Sustainability Symposium - Friday, April 25, 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Nelson Auditorium, 3400 Nelson Hall. This event features six panelists leading a discussion about career and other opportunities in the evolving energy economy, hosted by Net Impact.

Marketing the Earth Week activities has been the BUS 465 students’ class project this spring. The students have been working with Derek Moretz, president of Net Impact, and members of the university’s Earth Week Committee to help develop, plan, promote and implement this year’s week-long series of events.

The class created the overall event name – “Energy. Environment. Everyone.” – which reflects the goals of NC State’s 2008 Year of Energy campaign.

Ryan Powell, education coordinator with NC State’s Waste Reduction and Recycling office and member of the Earth Week planning committing, said that events like Earth Week are designed to generate awareness and encourage people to make small changes. “We want to give the community some ‘low hanging fruit’ to think about – small, simple changes they can make that really do affect the environment,” he said.

“Students worked tirelessly to make this entire week a success,” Kimbrough said. “They have planned activities, designed t-shirts and bracelets to sell as well as advertising and promotional activities and public relations materials to support the events. In addition, the class members recruited vendors, performers and generated informative activities and giveaways that will help draw attention to environmental issues,” she said.

“The three student project leaders  - Mason Littlefield, Pete Gross and Ashley Muma  - and the project’s group leaders have done an outstanding job,” Kimbrough said. “The student project leaders in this class have been active and in-charge.  They developed spreadsheets that document and assess all aspects of the projects, from vendor lists to student volunteer lists to a master ‘to-do’ list.  It has been wonderful to see such initiative and follow-through,” she said. “They showed a high level of professionalism and maturity.”

"I'm most excited about having the opportunity to share what I've learned with my peers – about how easy it is to start going green with just a few simple steps,” said Brice Shields, PR group leader for the BUS 465 project class. “I learned a lot about making media packets and PSA's (public service announcements) which will be very valuable in the future. Now I know what is involved in this process."

The students have documented the process of planning this event and are creating a video that will showcase trials and triumphs of their semester’s activities. "This is the first year NC State has celebrated Earth Day in a week-long fashion and it's important to document events such as these, especially the first time,” said Mason Littlefield, a student team leader. “Creating a video along with a final report will benefit the Earth Week committee for years to come, as changes are made and processes are modified. This will also serve as a compilation of the work put into this event and provide the memories of what made it a great success."

Kimbrough thanks Powell, Moretz, and Keith Nichols, director of university news services, for generously contributing their time in working with the students on this project.

- story by Cailin Deery, communications intern