Whether it be practicing with the Portland State Chamber Choir or learning how to encode for websites, marketing sophomore Andrew Grossman is finding ways to incorporate his passions with his life goals.
Grossman recently received a scholarship offered by the Search Engine Marketing Association of Portland in collaboration with PSU. The scholarship, only offered twice per year, will pay for Grossman to attend the association’s spring workshop and will cover the $650 cost of attending PSU’s search engine marketing class.
After filling out an application, complete with essays covering his experiences with marketing as well as why he believed he would be a good candidate for the scholarship, Grossman was shocked to find out he won the award. “It was so exciting. They made this big announcement and put my name in there,” he said. Since the scholarship was advertised so well, Grossman doubted he stood a chance to win it.
Originally more interested in the arts, Grossman had no intention of pursuing a business-related major when he arrived at PSU. His high school choir experience made him positive that he wanted to study the arts, especially dancing and music. Choosing PSU over Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Grossman believed he would live the starving-artist lifestyle.
“I really considered business to be the bane of the college experience,” he said. “It seems like business is the default major that people go with when they don’t know what to do or haven’t discovered something better.”
After diving into his arts studies, Grossman found that his passion lessened and that, for him, music and dance was not about money but about the art. Realizing that these passions would not financially support him as much as he wanted, Grossman switched to marketing, knowing that the degree could also be applied to his passion for the arts. He also realized that the Portland area had much to offer business-wise—through connections gained in high school and through newer connections gained with companies and internships, Grossman found his interests lay in a different area of study.
“I really found my niche in business,” he said. “I was fortunate to come out of the heavy art lifestyle to have an interest in marketing…I looked into the job market to see where I could apply creativity and found that marketing and advertising can be a very creative industry.”
Since he enjoys community-based projects and operations such as the Portland Farmers Market, Grossman took an interest in marketing for agriculture business. “[Farmers] are rarely connected and they thrive off of networking and the community,” he said. “It really doesn’t make sense to me that farm shares are not community focused.”
Grossman also attended a workshop offered by the SEMpdx association. “It was an opportunity I really couldn’t pass up—learning with professionals in the industry for consecutive Fridays for hours and hours at a time,” he said. One workshop he attended incorporated real-world examples of marketing through social media techniques and featured guest speakers.
SEMpdx is a local nonprofit organization made up of digital marketing professionals, small business owners, corporations, public relations firms, consultants, ad agencies and anyone interested in search engine marketing, even students, according to the SEMpdx website. The organization focuses on search engine marketing and social media marketing and holds goals of developing and enhancing SEMpdx member businesses and employees as well as informing and educating the Portland community on the benefits of search engine marketing, according to current board member Mike Rosenberg.
Students are encouraged to reach out to SEMpdx to get involved with events and workshops. “We always have deeply discounted event pricing for students for all of our events,” Rosenberg said. “We typically have an educational event each month (usually the second Tuesday of the month starting at 4:30 p.m.). Our blog is also a good resource for students who are interested in search engine marketing.”
For more information about SEMpdx, visit www.sempdx.org. Information about available scholarship opportunities is posted online. Rosenberg encourages students interested in these scholarships to sign up on SEMpdx’s website and to “like” the organization on Facebook or follow it on Twitter.