Each year, AMA Houston distributes a minimum of one third of net income in the form of AMAHGB Grants funding marketing efforts of local non-profit organizations. The grant program has long been the cornerstone of this program and continues to transform and open doors for recipients.
“I’ve been recommending it to all the fellow members for AMA Houston at UH,” said Camille Corales, last year’s Penny Todd Scholarship recipient and President of the American Marketing Association on the University of Houston campus. “It has opened up so many opportunities for me. AMA has supported me through the entire process.”
In June 2017, AMAHGB will award the $5,000 Penny Todd Scholarship again to a local undergraduate marketing student. The scholarship will help offset the cost of higher education for an undergraduate marketing student with roots in or studying in the Houston marketing community. For Corales, the scholarship meant she could spend less time finding ways to pay for school and more time in it.
“I have been able to cut down on work hours thanks to the scholarship. I was able to spend more time on campus and that was what helped me make AMA UH one of the best in the country. But I don’t want to put all the credit on me, it was a team effort between me and my board.”
Thanks to donations made towards the scholarship each year, Corales is now in her senior year at UH and has added an additional minor in finance to her major in marketing and minor in Spanish. However, she says the scholarship did more than give her the opportunity to finish school, it also allowed her to focus on becoming a leader in her community.
“[AMA UH] went to conference and competed, which has never been done,” said Corales. “There has just been a lot of things that I would have never been able to do, like making a mentor-mentee program. This year I have 8 mentees. We do things as simple as help them get scholarships. I take my mentees to my finance meetings—it’s just little things like that. It’s like a ripple effect. Because of the support I’ve received I’ve been able to help others.”
AMA Houston named its annual scholarship program in honor of Penny Todd, a past chapter president and the founding chair of AMA Houston Gives Back, the chapter’s philanthropic arm that has donated over $50,000 in grants to help nonprofit organizations with their own marketing programs.
“I’ve always wanted to do my own scholarship fund,” said Corales. “Now that I’ve been a part of it and have seen the process of how the Penny Todd Scholarship works, I have a better idea of how to do that now.”
The 2017 deadline for application is Sunday, May 28, 2017.
Blog by AMA Volunteer: Allegra Boutch