Dedicated, passionate, hard-working.

These are just a few words that James Peltier, adviser of UW-Whitewater’s American Marketing Association, uses to describe his students.

AMA has had a successful school year by taking second in the International Chapter of the Year race and first in the Nintendo Case Competition.

UW-Whitewater’s collegiate chapter has won the International Chapter of the Year six times since 2000.

“As a past AMA president, I can tell you that we are seen as the best chapter in the world,” Peltier said. “We are the ones to beat year-in and year-out.”

To cap off the successful year, Peltier received the AMA Lifetime Achievement Award, which is awarded to faculty advisers with 20 or more years of experience.

The award is presented to advisers who keep active in AMA. The award is fairly new, only being in its second year. There are only three advisers who have received the award in the past.

“Being able to share this prestigious award with my family and students is something that I will always remember,” Peltier said.

Peltier has been involved in AMA since 1986, when he created the Creative Marketing Unlimited group, a research and marketing agency. Although Peltier advises more than 120 members, three additional personnel help him lead the chapter.

Carol Scovotti, case coordinator of seven years, Pavan Chennamaneni, second year associate case coordinator, and Andy Dahl, third year research and marketing agency assistant, all help promote the group’s successes.

Scovotti said the AMA case competition, which UW-Whitewater took first in, is one of the most challenging competitions. In the Nintendo Case Competition, students teamed up to prepare a marketing plan for a well-known client—Nintendo.

This year, more than 100 schools submitted plans, but only 10 were selected to present their plans to the client. In the presentation, teams had 25 minutes to convince Nintendo of their plan.

“Our AMA case competition team has made it to the national finals seven years in a row,” Scovotti said. “That’s quite a feat.”

Students took home $3,000 and a variety of other awards at the case competition, Peltier said.

“I am almost embarrassed to admit it, but when we won the case competition I think I jumped higher than my students did,” Chennamaneni said.

Peltier receives phone calls each semester from businesses looking for his best AMA students. Graduating seniors and AMA students looking for internships are characterized by businesses as far more polished than students that are not involved in a similar organization, Peltier said.

“The projects in which AMA members participate provide students with experiences comparable to what they will do in the real world,” Scovotti said. “I hear this every time I speak with an alum who was an AMA member.”

Liz Bartlein, a double major in journalism and speech, is president-elect this year. Bartlein said AMA has helped her greatly throughout her college career by giving her experiences that wouldn’t have been otherwise possible in a typical classroom setting.

“I will never forget when UW-Whitewater’s name was brought up on the screen [at the Nintendo case],” Bartlein said. “I’ve never had a feeling of such accomplishment and pride in my life before.”

In the fall, Molly Siegel, a journalism major, was the AMA president. This semester, Katy Church, also a journalism major, leads AMA as the president.

Dahl said clients always seem to be very impressed with how involved the students are. AMA students get a chance to work with real clients allowing students to handle themselves professionally.

“Hearing the joy in their voice when they get their first job makes all the time and energy of being an adviser seem like a small price to pay,” Peltier said.