Marketing Majors Create an Honor Society Start-up

Marketing

by Stephen Briggs

 
2018 Delta Mu Sigma Group Picture

SUMMARY: First of its kind in the nation digital marketing honor society Delta Mu Sigma (ΔΜΣ) created at JMU CoB.


The idea was born out of meetings marketing professor Theresa Clarke had with two honors students, Briana Cifelli (’18) and Jami Adler (’18), who now serve as co-founders. According to Clarke, the group started with “the goal of becoming a global digital marketing honor society because there is nothing like this today—and an organization where recruiters from companies know where to find good digital talent.”

After conceiving the idea, they put together a committee with five other individuals and developed the ΔΜΣ ritual, crest, pin, what they stand for, what they aim to be and the long term goal: to become an official honor society that is recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies. It is a long process that takes at least five years, but they’ve got the concept hatched and now hope to start spreading it to other schools.

In the short term, the goals are to recognize and encourage high achievement in specialized fields of marketing, become a formally recognized nonprofit organization at JMU, and begin to establish a larger membership base at JMU and beyond at other universities. Mid-level organizational goals include development of educational programs and activities such as service projects, awards, scholarships, workshops, career services and publications associated with digital, direct and database marketing.

The new society held an induction ceremony on April 20 for the 22 students and one faculty member (Andy Wood) that make up the Alpha class of the Alpha chapter. Reflecting on the event, Clarke said, “The one word that came to mind was: perfect. It was executed beautifully. I feel that all the people who participated appreciated all the work that the students put in and found it to be very special.”

Cifelli added to the sentiment, saying, “For me and the others members of the board it was a really rewarding experience because we spent so much time coming up with the initiation and the rituals. Seeing that take place with our friends and other students in the field, and to see it come to life—it was a great experience.”

As far as the next steps for ΔΜΣ, Clarke said, “We’re very excited to share this with other schools and future classes at JMU as well. We’re hoping there’s as much momentum and excitement outside of JMU as there was inside of it,” adding, “I think it’s just so cool to watch students build something from scratch that can truly impact so many people.”

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Published: Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Last Updated: Thursday, November 2, 2023

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