Success story: Farzana Ali re-ups at ReadyU

Areas of Study , Marketing Success Stories | Feb 04, 2013 | Nicole Gesualdo

Farzana Ali (GSB ’15) is an applied accounting and finance major, complete with past internship experience in wealth management at UBS, but that’s not stopping her from cultivating a sideline in marketing.

After completing a fall-semester internship with ReadyU, a promotional program for Procter & Gamble brands that focuses on the college market, Farzana has received and accepted an offer to continue into the spring.

What does this mean for Farzana? Five additional months of dreaming up novel ways to get P&G products into the hands of Fordham classmates, using social media, guerrilla marketing and the indefatigable distribution of trial-size items.

What does this mean for you? If you play your cards right, more free mouthwash.

“I picked ReadyU because my responsibilities are creative, convenient, and cool,” Farzana said, as well as a refreshing change from the buttoned-up world of big finance. Not that it’s a small amount of work: Around Rose Hill, Farzana already has handed out 550 containers of Old Spice body wash, 200 Covergirl mascaras and 394 Tide Pods. That’s all got to be stored someplace (which is where a helpful friend comes in), schlepped around and successfully placed in the hands of peers.

Farzana is clearly good at this. Her energetic work last semester made her one of only three ReadyU interns nationwide who were designated “Top Overachievers” — not a minor deal when you contemplate that 100 colleges and universities nationwide have ReadyU reps. Farzana also won an “Outstanding Creativity Award” for the photos she regularly posted on social media.

“Besides bolstering my marketing skills, ReadyU empowers me with an entrepreneurial experience by letting me make all the artistic and financial decisions,” Farzana said. While she pursues her accounting- and finance-focused major, this position helps her to develop her more entrepreneurial side and to stay in touch with what it means to work the floor with finesse.