Top Marketing Students Spring 2022
The Department of Marketing in the Robert C. Vackar College of Business & Entrepreneurship (RCV COBE) has identified its top students in this year’s graduating class.
Six outstanding young women were nominated by the department faculty to compete for top student honors. All students have demonstrated academic excellence with cumulative GPAs in excess of 3.75. In addition, our exceptional students have been extensively involved in student leadership positions and social outreach activities.
In a competitive vote, the marketing faculty selected Aylin Madrigal as the top marketing student of the year. Ms. Madrigal combines an outstanding academic achievement with leadership roles in multiple student organizations. She will move on and compete against the top students from each of the other departments in the college for the overall RCV COBE Student Excellence Award.
Professor highlight
Dr. Michael S. Minor
Department Chair of The Marketing Department, Dr. Michael S. Minor publishes his International Business book in Chinese.
Student spotlight
Marketing Consulting Semester Project
Marketing Principles (MARK 3300-06)
Fall 2019 Semester
During the Fall 2019 semester, Ms. Zambrano exposed undergraduate students in her Principles of Marketing course to marketing consulting opportunities with local businesses in the Rio Grande Valley. Students formed consulting groups and worked with one of three selected businesses during the semester to develop a marketing plan focused on addressing a specific strategic objective for 2020. Upon the completion of the semester, each consulting group presented their marketing plan and obtained feedback from each client. This experience allowed students to apply what they were learning in the classroom to assist businesses reach their strategic goals as well as learn from dynamic businesses leaders in the RGV community.
IBC Bank
Students in Ms. Zambrano’s Principles of Marketing course, Fall 2019 presented their marketing plans to Adrian Villarreal, President, and CEO of IBC Bank. Marketing plans addressed customer retention, increasing usage of digital bank products, engaging students with geofencing, and increasing the younger consumer segment.
Comfort House
Students in Ms. Zambrano’s Principles of Marketing course, Fall 2019 presented their marketing plans to David Perez, the Executive Director of the Comfort House, a nonprofit organization offering respite care for vulnerable clients. Marketing plans addressed developing a younger volunteer-base by developing strategies to attract and engage high school and college students from the local community.
Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship – Marketing Department
Students in Ms. Zambrano’s Principles of Marketing course, Fall 2019 presented their marketing plans to Dr. Michael Minor, the Chair of the VCoBE Marketing Department. Marketing plans focused on increasing awareness of the academic programs in Marketing and undergraduate certificates options in Entertainment, Branding, and Communication, and Design and New Product Commercialization.
PhD Student Research
Consumer Neuroscience
Applies tools and theories from neuroscience to better understand decision making and related processes.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
The Electroencephalography is designed for tracking electrical activity in the brain. It utilizes electrodes placed on or underneath the scalp to record activity with coarse spatial but high temporal resolution.
Eye-Tracking
Eye-tracking is the process of measuring where we look, also known as the point of gaze or the orientation of an eye relative to the head. An eye tracker is an instrument used for measuring movement to determine exactly where the user is looking at, useful to demonstrate the point of focus.
Equipment
- Emotiv EPOC +14 Channel Mobile EEG
- Tobii Eye Tracking Glasses 2
Research Group
- Dr. Michael Minor
- Dr. Xiaojing Sheng
- Dr. Reto Felix
Research Assistants
- Zoila Zambrano
- Swapnil Saravade
- Sasawan Heingraj
- Suwakitti Amornpan
- Sudipto Sarkar
- Ross Murray
- Ai Nhan Ngo
- Md Shakhawat Hossain
Opossum Pups
Sasawan Heingraj is using opossum pups in her dissertation on social development.
Extant research on cross-cultural psychology and international branding shows an effect of environmental exposures on consumer's perception. But how it impacts brain mechanism, especially brain development, still needs further examination and explanation. Based on this question, the first study of my dissertation will examine the effect of environmental exposures on brain development by examining the postsynaptic protein in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex areas of the gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis Domestica). Due to its extremely immature brain development and easy access to its offspring, the gray short-tailed opossum offers us an opportunity to examine brain development stages, which can be difficult to examine in humans.
"When I discussed the project with Dr.Minor, my dissertation chair, I was pretty excited about it. And I even got more excited when I did the brain slicing. Everything is very interesting and fascinating. I feel like this is just the beginning. There are many things that we can learn by simply stepping out of your comfort zone. Thanks to UTRGV and my team for patiently helping, training, and supporting me all along".
In the pictures, we were discussing the opossum brain's slicing procedures in order to examine the amount of the protein occurred in the specific brain sections.
Alumni Achievements
Dr. Ngoc Cindy Pham
Ngoc Cindy Pham an alumna of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley takes her students off-campus and into New York City’s fashion world for real-world lessons in all aspects of business management
Business Management Professor Ngoc Cindy Pham (far right) celebrates the Lunar New Year at a post–New York Fashion Week event at the New-York Historical Society.