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The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

Twitter becomes tool for SBCC marketing students in Central Europe

For many students, studying abroad is nothing but a remote dream, but this summer it became reality for 26 marketing students as they were sent to Europe for four weeks of study.

To apply to the program the students were required to enroll in two 3-unit courses at City College, making their study time in Europe a 6-unit course compressed into four weeks.

“It’s an intensive study environment,” said Marketing Professor Julie Brown, who accompanied the students on the trip. “It was not just fun and games.”

Between July 1 and 29, the students tried out life in the European cities of Vienna, Prague, Salzburg and Munich. They met marketing experts who explained how the different cities market themselves and what problems they have encountered throughout the years.

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“Everyone needs marketing classes,” Professor Brown said. “If you come to a job interview without knowing how to market yourself, your competition will get the job.”

The summer program offered the students a chance to understand and get an introduction to global networking and marketing. It was an opportunity for them to get an additional perspective on life and to try out social networking in a foreign country.

During the trip, Brown had the students use Twitter as part of the global networking.

“Unlike Facebook, Twitter is commercial by nature,” she said. “Every tweet is like a town-crier.”

Today’s competitive society in combination with the difficulties of finding jobs makes it important for students to be able to market themselves in a good way after graduation. The significance of presenting an experience that makes you stand out from the crowd at a job interview is increasing, and so is the number of study abroad programs.

“This is a resume building program,” Brown said. “You get saleable job skills and practical and experiential global experience.”

During the trip, the students partook in a marketing competition among each other, resulting in a student-designed webpage, containing most of the necessary information for people interested in applying for a similar study abroad program.

Professor Brown is hoping to have a new summer program ready in 2012, this time going to London and Dublin.

“The students had to make budgets and cook their own food,” Professor Brown said, and estimated the final bill to up to $7.000 or more depending on the person. “I recommend that you start planning two years in advance.”

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