Brand ambassadorships have become a hot position for Millennials. Ambassador programs have their perks: free merchandise, company connections, resume building and the bragging rights of saying you work at a particular company. However, these are merely the surface benefits one may gain before embarking on the journey of a campus representative.
As a brand representative for Cosmopolitan Magazine, I’ve encountered my fair share of challenges. For one, selling Cosmo subscriptions to college students who have limited budgets is more of a struggle than you may think. Buying food, gas for your car, textbooks and all the random online purchases you don't really need but think you do often take precedence.
For me, challenges keep it interesting. If it were too easy, it wouldn’t be fun or gratifying. After making that one sale, I not only celebrate a little, but also motivate myself to try and obtain the next one. Will I meet my semester-end goal by May? I hope. If I don’t, then at least I can take away the valuable lessons I learned from the overall experience.
Elon University is a hub for entrepreneurial students looking to make an impact and address a market need. Whether it’s representing a company on campus or taking the initiative to make an idea your own, Elon students sure have drive. And in a tight knit “bubble” community like Elon, new startup ventures aren’t strangers to campus talk.
For some Elon students, the entrepreneurial fever has already kicked in. Senior Taylor Berghane and junior Logan Williams founded Graham Stetter, a startup specializing in needlepoint products with a focus in Elon’s Greek life market, in 2013,. The pair works with a group of brand ambassadors who help spread the Graham Stetter lifestyle to campus, a tool that has helped the brand reach a larger audience.
“Graham Stetter envelops a mindset that everyone should ‘Live, Think, Be Lavish’ — being all you can be and being proud of who you are. We also have a cause that hits home. Both Taylor and I have experienced grandfathers fighting or having fought against lung cancer. The name Graham Stetter comes from this matter. Both recognized grandfathers' last names combined embodies the company,” Williams said.
Berghane and Williams is not the only pair unafraid. Three Elon freshmen founded Coastal Prep Clothing this fall after discovering they all shared a common interest in entrepreneurship. This endeavor has collected a great amount of campus publicity, including a recently aired Elon Local News feature.
Other students are making an impact in a global way through companies like Bangs Shoes and Serengetee. Sophomore Laura Conroy is a campus representative for Serengetee, a company that is selling apparel to make a difference across the world by contributing to causes such as poverty relief, orphan care, microfinance and more. “I love working at Serengetee because it gives me the opportunity to do and work for something bigger than myself. It affects people on the global scale and makes a huge impact. Knowing I had a part in that is the best and most rewarding feeling,” Conroy said. For those who are service-oriented and strive to make a difference on a larger scale, a campus representative position may fulfill these hopes.
An overwhelmingly present entrepreneurial drive exists on campus. Elon students are reinventing the ways they learn about business and industry. Millenials are setting out to be their own success stories and teach themselves through the most valuable curriculum: experience.
If you are still searching to find that one thing you can inject your creativity into, I encourage you to pursue a campus position that will suit your interests. And if your dream opportunity doesn’t exist, invent one that does.