A team of California State University, Northridge marketing students received national recognition from the American Marketing Association (AMA) for developing an “Outstanding Chapter Plan.”

The Matadors’ AMA 2014-15 executive board, which was responsible for the plan, sent five AMA members to the National AMA Intercollegiate conference in New Orleans to receive their well-deserved award.

“We were very excited to attend the conference this year,” said Tannaz Nourparvar, senior marketing student and the AMA chapter’s new president. “It was our plan to show everyone what CSUN is all about.”

Nourparvar was one of five students who attended the conference and received the award on behalf of the CSUN AMA chapter.

“Winning that award was such an overwhelming feeling,” Nourparvar said. “It was especially a big deal for us, being that we are such a small chapter in comparison to the other universities there.” There was a record of 186 universities in attendance, including Fordham University, Northeastern University and University of Iowa from the “Outstanding Chapter Plan” division.

Kristen Walker, marketing professor for CSUN’s David Nazarian College of Business and Economics, accompanied AMA executive board members Andrea Nieto, Edith Gomez, Nanki Singh, Wezley Masangkay and Nourparvar to the New Orleans conference.

“This is the first time that we’ve gone [to the intercollegiate conference] since I was an undergraduate here, a long time ago,” she said.

Walker took the students with the financial support of the Nazarian College dean’s office.

“Each year, every chapter submits a chapter plan and an annual report to be considered a qualified chapter,” Walker said. “This teaches the students how to behave like a business and a professional organization.”

Once the chapter plan and annual report are submitted, a group of faculty advisor volunteers go through and evaluate each submission. This year, CSUN AMA won the “Outstanding Chapter Plan,” thanks to its executive board.

“This award reinforces the fact that the American Marketing Association is really unique, because it is a professional organization,” Walker said. “It’s a nice chance for students on campus to be involved in something that is social and academic — but at the same time, professional.”

With the new award in hand, Walker and the AMA members would like to continue taking students to the conference annually.

“Our hope is to get more alumni to fund us,” Walker said. “When we talked to the top groups at the conference, we found that a lot of them are sponsored by alumni — so that would be fabulous.”

The AMA 37th Annual International Collegiate Conference helps marketing students take their careers to the next level through professional development, cutting-edge career advice, competitions and networking.

This year’s conference hosted 1,481 students, 138 faculty advisors and a record 186 universities. AMA collegiate chapters came to celebrate their successes and learn best-practice chapter-management techniques. Students and AMA faculty advisors alike networked with their peers.

Read more about the National AMA Intercollegiate Conference.

American Marketing Association, David Nazarian College of Business and Economics, National AMA Intercollegiate Conference