Bella McManus

Chinook Writer

Casper College will sunset its AS in marketing this year, replacing it with a new degree. Virginia Garner, Marketing and Hospitality Faculty at Casper College, said the advisory board met to address issues with the current marketing degree. Students transferring to universities were having to take different variations of the same classes at a “senior level,” and weren’t being properly equipped to enter the industry straight after graduating. Garner said the board discussed how to give students the skills they need to succeed in marketing rather than just the credits they need to transfer. This led them to create the Associate of Applied Science in Marketing. The degree, which is about three years in the making, launched this academic year, designed specifically to prepare students for the workforce straight out of CC. Garner recommends that students who want to transfer to a university go into business administration, which will get them to an advanced student business standing. 

 Dustin Neal, a member of the marketing advisory board, said that marketing has “become a little watered down over the years.” He said that anyone can get a marketing degree, but oftentimes when they enter the workforce they lack valuable “hard skills,” such as design, web coding, photography, or communication. Neal said this new major allows students to get the degree but also focus on different skillsets, leaving graduates more qualified for the industry than many of their peers. 

 The new AAS in marketing was designed with a strong foundation of marketing classes and a handful of business classes, and students can choose a concentration of entrepreneurship, content creation, or graphic design. Students also have the option to get a certificate in graphic design or entrepreneurship. 

“We call it our influencer degree,” Garner said. “Students leave here with all of these various skills that are applicable in the marketing field today.” 

 While the degree is mostly an upgraded and rearranged version of the previous AS in marketing designed to better equip students, it does include two brand new classes: a marketing seminar and a digital marketing II class. Garner described the seminar as an entry level look at marketing, potential careers, issues, personal branding, case studies, and more, allowing new marketing students to explore the question, “where are your skills and where do you fit in?” 

 Sasha Remp, an international student and freshman in the major, said she’s enjoyed the seminar class so far because it helps her see real-life examples of marketing and put it into practice. Students in the class are currently creating a marketing plan for the degree that will help promote the coursework to next year’s enrollees.  

 Neal said that in a follow-up meeting about the degree, the advisory board began discussing the need for and development of an entire class dedicated to artificial intelligence, specifically its uses, purpose, ethics, and application. 

“We’re just now starting to see the big universities… getting it together,” Neal said. “So if Casper College… can jump on that quickly and execute it at a high level, it keeps them future ready.” 

 Garner and Neal both said that another exciting part of the major is mentorship. Depending on what the student wants to pursue as a career after they graduate, there are marketing professionals in that industry willing to mentor them the entire time they are at CC. They will be there to share insight on projects, homework, and coursework, Garner explained. 

Whether the student wants to go into marketing for healthcare, hospitality, television, radio, cosmetology, or something else, Garner assured that the student will be paired with a marketing professional that will help them thrive in said career field. 

“They should be able to walk out of here and be successful,” Garner said.