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Recruitment in the Zimmerman Advertising Program
[02.08.2016]

After thoroughly restructuring the Zimmerman Advertising Program (ZAP) curriculum at USF, including a cohort model of only 34 student per year, the application and selection process of ZAP incoming students needed to be updated as well. This new 4+1 ZAP curriculum is rigorous, and is only meant for motivated students with a passion for advertising. Those who start in year one of ZAP must be ready to face five years of business, marketing and mass communications courses. They must be both creative and data savvy, and have an interest in learning what it takes to run a business. In order to select the best students for this program, a ZAP recruiter was hired.

Alexis Quintal, ZAP recruiter, started working with ZAP this past summer, and immediately created a recruitment and admission plan for the program. Special review of math SAT/ACT scores, minimum GPA requirements, and an interview were added to the application process for ZAP. The goal was to review each applicant holistically, and meet each interested student to evaluate if they were the right fit for the program.

The program is interested in expanding its diversity of students, to include more out-of-state and international students. Out-of-state recruitment has been geared specifically toward the Northeast corridor, where many large agencies have their main office. Additionally, Quintal also has traveled to the Midwest for several conferences. Her strategy is to visit high schools with strong business programs or extra-curricular activities, such as DECA, Student Government or Entrepreneurship programs. She also has attended conferences related to advertising, such as American Advertising Association's Advertising Career College Expo to be held in Chicago, Ill., or DECA's Career Development Conference held in Austin, Texas.

"We want to see a diverse pool of motivated high-achieving students next fall" said Quintal, who also commented that she hopes to mirror the strength of this year's cohort. "We already have an impressive group of students in the first cohort of ZAP, and we want to keep that momentum."

Filed under:Mass Communications Arts and Sciences    
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