University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) senior marketing students Camila Sandoval Serrano and Monica Bravo both have set their sights on earning their degrees and successfully launching their careers.

Thanks to a pair of scholarships, their future pathways are now even brighter.

Serrano received the $5,000 American Marketing Association-Houston Chapter’s (AMA) Penny Todd Scholarship, while Bravo also was awarded $5,000 through the Houston Advertising Federation Scholarship.

Both students studied under the tutelage of Dr. Lucille Pointer, who nominated them for the recent honors.

“They are both top students and very deserving of these scholarships,” said Pointer, Professor of Marketing at UHD’s Marilyn Davies College of Business. “I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them.”

Serrano serves as the 2019-2020 president of UHD’s AMA Collegiate Chapter. She also is UHD’s Student Government Association’s Chief Adviser for Leadership & Student Development for 2020-2021. Additionally, she volunteers for many organizations including the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and AMA Houston.

"I’m excited to continue pursuing my goals at UHD with the help of AMA. I’m looking forward to many more opportunities, lessons and experiences,” she said.

After completing her degree, Sandoval Serrano plans to begin her professional career at an advertising agency.

“One of my professors said that an advertising agency is a great place to start your career because you do a little bit of everything while gaining a lot of industry experience,” Sandoval Serrano said. “His advice always stuck with me and after having the pleasure of speaking with industry professionals at various networking events, I plan to do this as I start my career. I would then love to move into a specialized area and build my career after gaining new perspectives from being out in the field.”

Bravo transferred to UHD this past year and Pointer said she was impressed with her leadership qualities.

“I taught Monica in two marketing courses and she was always one of the top students,” Pointer noted. “She worked extremely well with team members to produce some of the most original projects utilizing many of the marketing concepts taught in the classes.”

Bravo’s future plans after UHD is to pursue a career in marketing research.

“Finding trends and patterns in large volumes of data is fascinating to me,” Bravo said. “The similarities of people across different demographics is so interesting. One common factor among a seemingly diverse sample can bring everyone together and then a trend emerges. I think finding that factor and seeing the resulting trend is so exciting.”

Bravo added that Pointer continues to serve a mentor to her as she moves toward graduation and the start of her career.

“Professor Pointer’s personal and professional experience as a marketer inspired me to declare marketing as my major,” Bravo said. “I really enjoyed her class, her anecdotes … I felt that I had learned so much by the end of the semester. She has been such a tremendous help and I definitely owe this scholarship in great part to her.”