May 16, 2003
Contact: Wendy Bohrson (509-963-2835/fax 509-963-2821/e-mail: bohrson@geology.cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Many students take advantage of research
projects available at Central Washington University, and the
opportunity to present their findings at the annual Symposium on
Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE).
The office of undergraduate research organizes the annual
event as one way to succeed in integrating research into the
undergraduate curriculum at CWU.
Tahnee Brown, a sophomore public relations major and business
administration minor from Wenatchee, and more than 90 other individuals
and groups presented their topics at the 8th annual SOURCE yesterday
(May 15) on the CWU Ellensburg campus.
Brown’s “International Marketing in China” project was
designed with her former marketing teacher, Dr. Megan Cleaver Sellick,
as an independent study. They researched China and Brown put the
information into essay form. Sellick used the essays as examples for
her International Marketing class.
Brown, 19, a 2001 graduate of Wenatchee High School, was
among those making 10-12 minute SOURCE oral presentations.
“I wanted to make the presentation fun in order to enjoy
presenting and to keep the audience’s attention,” she explains. “So, I
decided to act as an international marketing manager that was
administering a brief introductory training program for marketing
corporations doing business in China.”
Her study focuses on geographical and environmental
perspectives in China and its relation to marketing strategies.
“The most important thing I learned was how it is important
to recognize the vast differences between the cultures in China and the
United States,” Brown says. “China’s economy is booming and their
market is opening to multinationals. Marketing research is vital for
companies that want to engage in business and marketing in China and
other countries.”
SOURCE 2003 is Brown’s first independent research experience,
and she believes it will be of benefit to her as she moves toward
obtaining a degree and then enters the career world.
“I enjoy public speaking and challenging myself with new
experiences,” Brown says.
Brown believes that success is obtaining personal goals. “If
I don’t obtain my personal goals, I try to find out why I didn’t obtain
them and then work toward improving,” she says.
