My Griffith Story: I came with an open mind and ready to ask questions.

My name is Ana, and I grew up in a little coastal town called Cumaná in sunny Venezuela. College was always a goal of mine and I want to share my experience as a student on the BA in Marketing.

My first day at Griffith, I came with an open mind, ready to ask questions if I needed to and I have always tried to keep that attitude. Rather than getting worried about college life or modules I thought I would be bad at (as I was never gifted at Maths in school), I preferred to be open to new experiences and try to do my best.  

During my first year, the BA in Business and BA in Marketing students shared modules, which consisted of introductory aspects of the general business areas, such as Business Management, Business Maths, Fundamentals of Finance, IT Skills for Business and Small Business Development.

Sharing classes with Business students during the first year was helpful for building up friendships and study groups. That year, every module worked to prepare us for the next year. Looking back, despite my fear of Maths, my favourite one was Business Finance, firstly because our lecturer was extremely patient with us - he was so approachable and engaging - and secondly, because he made the module very interactive, which helped my understanding.

In second year, I studied general business modules, but also marketing modules too, like Market Research Practice and Principles of Marketing. Marketing was where my interest lied and why I chose the BA in Marketing. Principles of Marketing was an interesting module to start the Marketing journey as it laid out the foundations of the discipline. Our lecturer made the module so much easier than I expected. Marketing has so many components and areas like market research, digital marketing, integrated marketing communications, branding, etc. Our lecturer made sure she explained the subject in an easy way which allowed us to engage in group discussions in her classes.

Second year also gave me the chance to prepare a business plan for the Enterprise, Innovation and Planning module. This was an extremely demanding module, as it consisted of an enormous amount of primary and secondary research (which I enjoyed) and it was all about making sure we found a gap in the market and building a business around that gap, filling a need for customers. This module was definitely a good taster of entrepreneurship and helpful for anybody in the class who was looking into creating their own business in the future.

Looking back, second year was definitely the busiest one of all; it was a big step up from first year in terms of papers, grading and workload. Third year flew by - it felt like one day we arrived at Griffith and then the next day we were in the final year of our degree.

In third year, the modules were definitely more targeted to the areas we wanted to specialise in. Business students were doing business classes and marketing students were in marketing ones; of course, both groups had general modules to sit together which was great as I had built friendships from the beginning across the two groups.

The final year modules consisted of Strategic Marketing Management, Digital Marketing, Business Finance, International Marketing, Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Communications Project.

Consumer Behaviour was definitely the highlight of the year! The module was extremely interesting, and our lecturer made it easy to understand with loads of examples. The module content is long and very rich in theory but necessary to understand consumers and the current marketing world.

Digital Marketing was another interesting one, besides the amount of theory, the lecturer made it a compelling subject. Digital Marketing is one of the areas I am most inclined towards as a potential career path as social media, and digital channels are really big areas within companies today.

Overall, my experience in the BA in Marketing was an excellent one. It was filled with memorable moments and memorable lecturers, as well as the unforgettable friendships I made during the course of my degree.

I still think that having an open mind in any course you decide to do is the best key to success. Your mind will thank you later. Being an international student myself, and English being my second language, I found I got along very well with the course and the modules because of the same reason. I tried to have an open attitude to challenges, even though in some cases I struggled to understand certain modules.

It is funny for me to think that Marketing was not a discipline that crossed my mind to do before getting to know more about my course, now I cannot imagine working or studying in anything else.