When students can put their newly acquired knowledge into practice, everyone wins.
That’s the goal behind Terry College senior lecturer Candice Hollenbeck’s Integrated Marketing and Brand Communication course. The class allows marketing students to gain real-world experience promoting local events, nonprofits and businesses and gives those organizations access to marketing support they might otherwise not be able to afford.
Hollenbeck’s ability to inspire her students to engage with the community is what earned her UGA’s Service-Learning Teaching Excellence Award, presented by the UGA Office of Service-Learning.
“Candice’s students leave her class not only with the experience of working with a client to meet their marketing goals, but also the experience of working as part of the wider community,” said Charlotte Mason, head of the Department of Marketing. “They’re helping to make a difference for the better, and that experience stays with them long after graduation and after they enter the workforce.”
Since 2005, Hollenbeck’s classes have worked with dozens of Athens-area small businesses and nonprofit organizations. By developing marketing campaigns on topics ranging from domestic abuse prevention, animal welfare, literacy and food insecurity, her students have helped to strengthen the Athens community.
Under her supervision, and with feedback from both the clients and from industry professionals, student groups apply marketing principles to real campaigns, providing brand identity and target market research, promoting events, designing infographics and websites and supporting fundraising initiatives.
“We have worked with Candice’s marketing classes for years on various aspects of the museum’s marketing and social media presence,” said Hillary Brown, director of communications for the Georgia Museum of Art. “She really does an amazing job equipping them to go out into the world and hit the ground running, listening to their clients and helping them move their organizations in a good direction.”
Hollenbeck’s students also regularly praise the value of these hands-on projects and the satisfaction of helping local organizations.
Hollenbeck was chosen for a Service-Learning Fellowship in 2019-20.
The Office of Service-Learning Teaching Excellence Awards recognizes faculty for developing, implementing and sustaining academic service-learning opportunities for UGA students.