From January 14th to January 17th, 76 students working to complete certificates for The Ciocca Center for Business attended the Marketing & Sales Workshop as well as the Interview Prep Workshop. Over the course of the four days, students were provided opportunities for collaboration, skill-building, and professional insights shared by alumni.
During the first two days, students attended the Marketing and Sales Workshop, which combined a team-based final presentation and sessions on career options led by alumni presenters.
Courtney Quinn ‘96 VP of Brand Strategy at Liberty Mutual and Katie Macdonald ‘07 Director II of Talent Management & Digital Advertising at Liberty Mutual, opened the workshop with a session on Advertising and Branding. Using Liberty Mutual as an example, they explored brand identity and how it can be brought to life. Their session emphasized the importance of identifying a target audience and constructing a brand framework around it.
Next, Catherine Cote ‘18, founder of Project Empathy, hosted a workshop on digital marketing. Cote explained the concept of a marketing funnel and demonstrated how to craft a value proposition for a brand.
John Hartz ‘98, President at Sloane & Company, concluded the first day with a session on public relations. Hartz covered key practice areas, including message and material development, media relations, crisis management, and digital & social media. He also guided students through how to apply these strategies to their PepsiCo projects.
Day two began with a sales session led by Cal St. Denis ‘08, Global Director of Sustainability at Johnson & Johnson MedTech and Founder of Treely Foods alongside Tyler Dooley ‘16, Founder of Wake Up Water and Co-Founder of Celly Hard Seltzer. They shared insights into sales strategies and targeting customers.
The workshop concluded with teams presenting their projects to a panel of PepsiCo judges, including Chris Vandervoorn ‘19, eCommerce Sales Strategy Manager at PepsiCo, Maureen Connolly ‘18, eCommerce Sales Manager at PepsiCo, and Rowan Burgess ‘23, Analyst at PepsiCo.
The Interview Prep Workshop held over the next two days provided students the opportunity to build their personal brand and practice their interview skills.
On the first day, Mimi Doherty ‘02, Head of Human Resources at Sanofi US General Medicines & Founder/President of Future Steps LLC led students through the exercise of building their personal brand, developing a value proposition, and connecting their resume with job descriptions.
Day two began with a session on elevator pitches and interview skill-building hosted by the Center for Career Development. Students identified their key skills, created elevator pitches, and practiced delivering them with peers. This session also covered common interview questions and ways to prepare.
Day two concluded with a session led by Jermey Hill, Founder of Dream Job Network. Hill encouraged students to identify their dream job by reflecting on their ideal day-to-day activities, industries, and roles they want to target, and what excites them most about a job. He shared strategies for identifying potential job opportunities and how to market yourself to employers.
Thank you to all of the alumni for giving back to the Holy Cross community.
Written by Anna Hagan ’27
