For most sophomores, the second year of college will be much like the first, with a packed schedule of required classes before they can get to the good stuff.
However, for students like Erin Bokuniewicz, sophomore year will involve valuable lessons outside the classroom and some practice in her field long before she gets her diploma.
A marketing sophomore, Bokuniewicz was chosen in early October as one of 70 students on 35 campuses around the country to be a brand ambassador for Current — a 24/7 cable and satellite television network produced by the viewers who develop its content.
Until mid-December, she will promote the Emmy Award-winning television network and the new Current.com Web site.
When a friend, fellow ambassador Angela Meltsner, told her about the opportunity, she applied at the end of September.
For Bokuniewicz, the project has been a welcome respite from general education classes.
“This was a way to actually do something that had something to do with marketing — actually applying things that I’ve been learning,” she said.
Her job, which includes “Guerilla Projections,” is far from the typical, boring after-school job. The students project content from the channel on the side of a building on a busy street, like Grand River Avenue. She also is involved in hanging posters and showing clips before movies at places like Wells Hall.
“It’s just really cool to see the other students’ reactions,” Bokuniewicz said.
The job is paid, with the students working about 10 hours a week. The students communicate with each other and their supervisor over the phone and online. They are required to hold events at places such as coffee houses and Laundromats offering free items and services to students.
“We have a Web site we go onto, and we can blog ideas,” she said. “We always have conference calls every week where (the supervisor) talks about goals we should be trying to reach and things like that.”
Students discuss ideas for events, what works and what doesn’t, to make sure they reach their classmates most effectively. Each ambassador is required to make a page on the Web site about a particular topic as well as a campus page. Bokuniewicz chose cool cities as her focus.
“This is something completely different, and the brand that we promote I think is really interesting too,” she said. “I think it’s just really fun.”
So far, the community’s reception of the ambassadors’ work has been positive, she said, and the project has been a learning experience.
“It has taught me that there are always different ideas,” Bokuniewicz said. “No matter if you think you’ve run out of ideas, there is always something new.”
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