Cal State L.A. Marketing Students to Find New FBI Recruits

Peer-marketing program helps CSULA students learn about FBI career and internship opportunities.

Los Angeles, CA - Problem posed: How can Cal State L.A. marketing students increase awareness and interest in FBI careers and internships among their fellow students? With a creative new marketing campaign called "A Changing World, A Changing FBI, A Peek at Your Future," says Shirley Stretch-Stephenson, CSULA professor of marketing.

This quarter, Cal State L.A. is one of only eight campuses nationwide participating in an FBI Collegiate Marketing Internship and Recruitment Program.

Through this hands-on team project, the CSULA students are learning to design, implement and measure the success of a peer-marketing campaign. The undergraduate students are working with a highly-experienced faculty member, FBI personnel, and EdVenture Partners to recruit competitive candidates to fill special agent and professional support positions, as well as to promote student involvement in the FBI Internship Program.

Additionally, CSULA students will have an opportunity to interact with FBI agents and experts on campus at a "Bold and Untold Information" event to be held February 22, and a "Bold and Untold Stories" presentation on Thursday, February 24.

In 2002, the Marketing Department at Cal State L.A. was selected as the first university to participate in the Federal Governments Pilot OPM Marketing Internship Program implemented at only five universities. The success of past projects such as the OPM Program coordinated with EdVenture Partners by Professor Stretch led EdVenture to encourage Cal State L.A. to participate in the FBI Internship Program.

EdVenture Partners is an organization that provides innovative industry-education partnerships for students, educators and major organizations. These partnerships afford college business students the specific "real world" experience demanded by today's employers: in this case, market research; marketing strategy; campaign design; advertising; public relations; and campaign assessment.

According to Dr. Stretch, "Programs like OPM and FBI puts Cal State L.A. firmly in a leadership mode for showing the campus, the community, the region, and the nation that business students graduating from Cal State L.A. are top caliber students with targeted training and a globally-focused, technology-based view that will impact the world in which we live."

For more information, contact Shirley M. Stretch-Stephenson, Cal State L.A. Department of Marketing, at sstretc@calstatela.edu.

Media Contact: Carol Selkin, Media Relations Director, (323) 343-3044