Fowler Scholars September 2023 Newsletter

Pamela Williamson, VP – Salesforce

On October 4, Pamela Williamson Regional Vice President of Marketing Cloud Sales at Salesforce, will listen to and offer valuable feedback as the Fowler Scholars present their Greensburg Case Study presentation. Prior to working at Salesforce, Pamela earned her MBA in Marketing and BA in Communication and Spanish from Arizona State University. She also gained 15 years of sales leadership experience at CATALINA Marketing, FIJI Water, and Molson Coors.  Since she has been a leader in the beer and retail industries, the Fowler Scholars will enjoy a robust discussion.

Paul Baribault, President & CEO - SD Zoo Wildlife Alliance

Paul Baribault, President & CEO SDZWA will be leading a FS practice session on October 18. Being the leader of an organization, which houses thousands of animals and over a million plants, there is a lot for students to learn in terms of culture and leadership especially during the pandemic.  The Zoo Wildlife Alliance also recently took home the Animation Award for their float in the Rose Parade highlighting 50 years of Conservation. This type of prestige is nothing new for Paul, who was the vice president and general manager for Disneynature. Since the Fowler Scholars are all San Diego & Imperial County natives, we have all been able to witness the kind of positive impact the SD Zoo Wildlife Alliance has brought to our community and to struggling animal & plant species.

Team to Analyze On Campus Dining Options and Stadium Employment Perceptions

Last year marked the first year where the Fowler Scholars were all assigned to meaningful business project teams.  This year, most of those projects are being carried on, such as this newsletter, the social media team, as well as events coordination. However, as envisioned by the program director, Mark Lindner, we are now happy to announce that the Fowler Scholars will be working with two local & international businesses.  The first of those businesses is Aztec Shops.  The project team’s goals in that capacity are two-fold.  First, analyze what students prefer or don’t prefer in regards to on campus dining and the different options.  They will accomplish that with a mass in person survey and with data collecting and analyzation.  The second goal is to figure out why or why not students are applying to Snapdragon stadium, as they are eager to hire and would like to publicize their amazing opportunities for student employment.  This project will report to and work closely with their project sponsor Ben Eisenstein.

Team Tasked with Analyzing Data to Support Marketing Campaign Implementation

Another Project Team will work with Hunter Industries under Brian Martinez’s leadership. The team has been tasked with analyzing data and deriving insights that will ultimately be implemented into a marketing campaign to drive sales. Tessa Norton, Director of Marketing Strategy at Hunter Industries, has sponsored this project and will work closely with the team throughout the year. This multi-stage project will involve overcoming challenges such as time constraints and learning how to organize large data. As of now, the team is working to approve their Project Charter with their sponsor.

Katherine Tat Sets Sights on Accounting Degrees

Katherine (Rising Junior) began preparing to apply for the BMACC 4+1 program. She plans to complete it during her fourth year at SDSU, allowing her to graduate with her Bachelor’s & Masters Degree in Accounting by 2025. She spent the majority of her summer studying for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), which she took and passed on August 18th.

Valeria Vizcarra Starts Her Own Marketing Agency

Taking inspiration from her mentor Miro Copic, Valeria began working on starting her marketing agency this summer called Vizval Marketing. Miro has been preparing Valeria to start her own business by challenging her mindset and giving advice on managing an agency. She also reached out to Ines Garibay and Mónica Malavé, who provided additional guidance through their industry experience and how to obtain clients. They helped Valeria realize that her agency’s clientele is not limited to local businesses. Through virtual communication, she can work with clients regardless of their location. Vizval Marketing focuses on helping Latino and Spanish-speaking business owners who do not know how to market their businesses. Her first client is a local furniture store Valeria has worked at for three years. Currently, she is posting basic marketing lessons on her agency’s TikTok account (@vizvalmarketing) in hopes of creating an audience she can later turn into clients. She explains that she wants to share the knowledge she has obtained at SDSU to give back to her community while also showcasing her agency’s capabilities. Valeria’s focus at the moment is gaining more experience through internships before further developing her business.

Brian Martinez Interns with Investment Banking Firm

Brian joined Stifel Financial this summer for a five-week Sophomore Explorer Internship. The firm is an up-and-coming investment bank that focuses on transaction and advisory services. Along with 20 other interns in the rotational program, Brian worked remotely on three projects he later presented to investment bankers in Stifel’s New York office. These projects focused on the three rotations explored during the program: investment banking, fixed income, and equity research. 

He notes that one of his biggest takeaways from his experience was the nature of Stifel’s culture. The firm is entrepreneurial and rapidly growing with recent acquisitions, yet it still ensures that employees feel connected. Brian was inspired by how everyone he interacted with embodied Ronald Kruszewski’s (CEO) golden rule to “treat others how they want to be treated.”

Stifel’s goal with this internship is to introduce interns to different fields in finance to help them better prepare for their careers after college. Brian explains that after completing the program, he felt more confident in pursuing a career in investment banking. He is also happy to share that he accepted an offer to return to the firm next summer as a Junior Investment Banking Intern in their New York office.

Gaby Mabey Follows Passion at PR Firm

In addition to the announced internships from the April Edition of the newsletter, Gaby Mabey (Rising Senior) worked in an intern capacity for Foundation, a PR Firm that represents a variety of cosmetic and wellness brands, in an intern capacity. She gained experience working with different brands and in turn obtained a greater knowledge of PR.

Foundation, being a brand representing many B2C businesses, is a digital-first forward-thinking organization, which was the perfect fit for Gaby.  Being so close to her major and passion for media-based marketing, Gaby was a great fit at Foundation.

Azareel Canizales ('23) Starts New Project Manager Position 

Azareel has started a new position as the Project Onramp Manager for a nonprofit called Life Science Cares.  LSC bridges the human capital, financial capital, and knowledge capital from life science companies with the efforts of local nonprofits who are fighting poverty. Life Science Cares is a collective effort by the Life Science industry to address the impact of inequality that affects many of our neighbors. Project Onramp creates paid summer internships for under-resourced college students, helping to bridge the opportunity gap for determined & bright individuals. Azareel oversees the internship program, leads recruitment of collaborating companies, as well as oversees the mentorship program they run.  Azareel had this to say about his new job, “I have had an amazing experience so far, and this role is perfect for me. I get to meet so many people, help students succeed, create fun events, & help companies’ HR departments with their DE&I work and their efforts for social good.”

Landon Delgadillo ('23) Passes Final CPA Exam

Starting in January of 2022, Landon began his journey to become a CPA certified accountant.  This journey is not to be found easy by any individual and Landon explains that saying “studying while working pushed the limits of what I found myself capable of but was a valuable lesson in time management.”  However, in July, Landon was happy to announce that he had passed all four parts of the CPA exam.  Landon will now continue to work with PwC as an Assurance Associate.