Marketing Students Raise $2,375 To Fight Juvenile Diabetes
Students in two sections of a Consumer Behavior course at Penn State's Smeal College of Business raised more than $2,300 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as part of an assignment to test social influence techniques.
Elliott Weyhe and a Smeal Consumer Behavior class.
Marketing Students Raise $2,375 To Fight Juvenile Diabetes
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (May 21, 2007) – Students in two sections of a Consumer Behavior course at Penn State's Smeal College of Business raised more than $2,300 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as part of an assignment to test social influence techniques.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation was founded in 1970 by the parents of children with type 1 diabetes to find a cure for the disease and its complications through the support of research.
In mid-April, five-year-old Elliott Weyhe and his mother, State College resident Hayley Weyhe, visited the Smeal classes to discuss what it is like to live with type 1 diabetes.
"Unfortunately, this is something Elliott has to live with for the rest of his life," said Hayley Weyhe. "Insulin is not a cure and he still may face life threatening complications that come with juvenile diabetes. That is why a cure is so important for families who live with this day in and day out."
After the Weyhe's visit, students were paired up and charged with developing two different social influence scripts for fund-raising for a non-profit. They solicited funds in residential neighborhoods and apartment buildings in the State College area, where permits were arranged. They kept the funds raised using the different methods in separate containers, and compared the results in a research paper.
A similar project was undertaken last semester in a class taught by Meg Meloy, associate professor of marketing, resulting in students raising about $3,000 for Habitat for Humanity.
"I heard about the project that Meg did in the fall, and I thought it was a great idea," said Marketing Instructor Carolyn Todd, who proposed the project to her students. "It's a unique way for them to apply the knowledge they learn in the classroom and do some market testing, and at the same time they're contributing to the community and helping a great cause.
The grand total of $2,374.76 was donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation during an in-class celebration attended by Elliott Weyhe and his family.
"We cannot express how grateful we are to these students and Professor Todd for selecting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for their class project," Hayley Weyhe said.
The money was added to the approximately $36,000 raised during the Juvenile Diabetes walk held on April 28 in Boalsburg, Pa., which was coordinated by Hayley Weyhe.
REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu.
Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
