This year, two WGU School of Business students – Alyssa Zavala, a master’s student in marketing, and Alicia Arrieta, an MBA student – were selected as learner correspondents. Supporting this year’s conference in San Francisco, they represented HubSpot Academy and applied their digital marketing skills to create engaging social media content in real time, capturing insights from learning sessions, networking events and keynote presentations. Zavala and Arrieta participated in all aspects of the conference, and I recently talked with them about this professional experience. 

Zavala shared, “Having the opportunity to attend INBOUND as a student was an incredible experience and gave me a glimpse of what my future in marketing could look like. I learned so much about improving my time management, networking and ways to refresh my skills through different sessions.” 

She added, “Putting myself out there wasn’t easy, but it helped me grow, make new connections and feel more confident about the path I’m on. One of the best parts of attending INBOUND was realizing that I’m not just building my résumé and portfolio, I’m building the future I’ve always wanted.”

Arrieta shared, “My overall experience with INBOUND was life-changing in the short term. I was a sponge the whole time. I was really excited to be able to network and meet so many people in person. Overall, it was an amazing experience to say the least.”

Cheyenne Boyce, lead marketer for Micro-Internship Programs at HubSpot, understands the importance of creating experiential learning opportunities with educational partners like the WGU School of Business.

“We’re really focused on training students by giving them tangible skills, and driving business value for HubSpot customers and the Learner Correspondent pilot helps do that,” Boyce said. “Being able to do something that is providing direct business value to HubSpot is a very important rsumé builder for students, but at the same time the experience is held in this container where students build out their own skills and portfolios. It becomes a win-win situation and is what makes the program so successful.” 

Alyssa Yeh, social and audience development lead for HubSpot Academy, appreciated how our students added value to the social media strategy for the conference with roughly 10,000 attendees. 

“As someone who runs social media for a brand, I’ve learned that people really enjoy seeing personal perspectives and organic content. The learner correspondents were a huge help by just being themselves,” Yeh said. “Sharing their perspectives and offering unique insights as WGU students was valuable, and it was exciting to see the engaging content they created.”

What’s also worth celebrating is that our students participated in an award-winning program. The HubSpot INBOUND Correspondent program, which is the umbrella program for the Learner Correspondent program, recently earned a CAP Award for best Advocate Engagement Campaign.

There’s beauty in providing opportunities to students like Zavala and Arrieta where they can apply the skills they learned through their degree program in real-world settings and demonstrate they are equipped for the current demands of the job market. I couldn’t be prouder of our students and their contributions to HubSpot’s digital marketing strategy, which also enhanced their professional portfolios. 

Collaborations with industry leaders like HubSpot also underscore the importance of providing students with the skills that are needed in the market today. In the interest of our students, we will continue to cultivate our corporate partnerships, including with HubSpot, because the WGU School of Business is committed to creating curriculum and experiential learning opportunities that help students learn and grow at the speed of business.