Black Dragon tops ’em in Spanish marketing contest

Stephanie Persaud, a marketing and management major at LIU Brooklyn, was a member of the winning team at an international marketing competition held at the Universidad Europea de Madrid in Valencia, Spain.

More than 50 students from Germany, France, Belgium and other European countries and the United States participated in International Marketing Week. The object of the competition was to create a marketing strategy for a wine label.

Persaud, 20, of Guyanese heritage, a junior at LIU Brooklyn and her successful teammates had an ambitious plan: They chose the label “The Black Dragon,” invented three wine products and developed marketing for a Hong Kong market.

“We were the only group to do three wines and the only group to create an ad, as well as a product label and bottle design,” said Persaud.

The South Ozone Park, Queens, resident added, “It was a great networking and learning experience. I got to meet students I would never have met in my lifetime from all over Europe and learned about the culture of Spain.”

In addition to Persaud, two other LIU Brooklyn marketing majors – seniors Wayne Lawson and Amanda Pokhan – participated in the event, which was held the first week of March.

“We develop global perspectives in our students, and this is a testament to ourinternationalization initiatives at LIU Brooklyn,” said Mohammed Ghriga, dean of LIU Brooklyn’s School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences. “Stephanie has shown leadership in interdisciplinary teams and a multicultural context. We are very proud of the quality of her work and her representation of our school.”

Persaud, who plans to attend grad school and go on to a career in international marketing, has been very active in her campus and personal life. Her activities include volunteering with Students for Humanity to help renovatehouses in Costa Rica.

She is a member of an education club that helps bring awareness to youths about college, as well as the president elect of the Marketing Society. She has been named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, is on the Dean’s List and has earned the Jim Moody Internship Award.

She has interned with BRIC Arts Media Center and with Island Def Jam Records, in marketing and event planning.

She also works with America Reads, tutoring young children, and at Broadway Suites, a company that rents office spaces to small businesses.

A Dynamic Curricula

The Brooklyn Campus is distinguished by its dynamic curricula reflecting the great urban community it serves. Distinctive programs encompass the arts and media, the natural sciences, business, social policy, urban education, the health professions and pharmacy, and include the Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, the Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics, the D.P.T. in Physical Therapy and the Pharm.D. in Pharmacy. A vibrant urban oasis in downtown Brooklyn, this diverse and thriving campus offers academic excellence, personalized attention, small class size and flexible course schedules. In 2006, a $45-million Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center was opened to serve the campus and the surrounding community. In 2007, the Cyber Café was launched, providing a high-tech hot spot for students and faculty members to meet and eat.