Sydney Hoffman: Building a Blugold brand

Sydney Hoffman arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire with an interest in business — and the business of helping others tell their stories. In high school, she competed in an entrepreneurship challenge where she collaborated with local business leaders and experienced the excitement of bringing ideas to life.

“That experience sparked my interest in marketing,” she recalls. “As I continued through school, each class deepened my interest and confirmed that marketing was the right path for me.”

Inspired by a speech from a brand manager at General Mills and the footsteps of her mom, another marketing specialist, the Minnetonka, Minnesota, native will graduate this fall with a degree in marketing, a digital analytics certificate and big dreams for a future in business.

Diverse paths and the Cosby Honors College

Hoffman’s skill as a business student has been sharpened, she says, by the diversity of experiences she’s sought out in the Mark Stephen Cosby Honors College. From courses like “Cultivating Creativity” and “The Use and Abuse of Big Data” to embarking on senior thesis research, honors reinforced her critical problem-solving skills, giving her chances to approach old ideas in new ways.

“The honors college has opened doors that I didn’t expect and given me the chance to connect with people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives.”

For her honors thesis, Hoffman is delving into consumer perception of human-generated versus artificial intelligence-generated marketing content. As AI plays an increasingly influential role in the marketing industry, Hoffman recognizes that thoughtful campaign creation is key.

“With all the talk about AI replacing jobs, I wanted to get ahead of the curve and explore how it can be leveraged to enhance, rather than replace, human creativity in marketing.”

Given that her first professional goal is to work at a marketing agency upon graduation, Hoffman’s honors thesis has given her a chance to master, and prepare to be a leader in, one of the biggest challenges and opportunities currently facing her industry.

“Doing an honors thesis this semester has been one of the most rewarding things I've done. It's kind of a culmination of everything I've learned and new things I am learning. It’s challenged me to think critically and given me insights that I will carry into my future career in marketing.”

Centered on writing

Over the past three years, Hoffman has worked as a writing assistant intern in UW-Eau Claire’s Center for Writing Excellence. There, she helps individual students and faculty craft their writing and holds group workshops to provide additional resources for students. She has always loved writing, she recalls, and her penchant for storytelling is no small part of her success in the College of Business. Still, Hoffman wanted to find a way to incorporate that passion into her academic journey while still pursuing a marketing career.

“I love leading workshops and collaborating with students of all writing abilities,” she shares. “It’s rewarding to see their confidence grow.”

As an experienced intern, she now takes new interns under her wing, guiding them along the position’s many responsibilities. That leadership role has been the most gratifying of her many experiences at UW-Eau Claire. It is not just helping others to find their voices, but also teaching her peers how to do the same.

“This experience has allowed me to make a positive impact on the campus community while refining my communication and mentorship skills,” she says. “I feel like working at the Writing Center was probably my biggest accomplishment.”

The business of involvement, on and off campus

The Financial Management Association, Oaks International, Cru, American Marketing Association and Pickleball Club — Hoffman has participated in an array of UW-Eau Claire student organizations.

Her rich social calendar is outdone only by her professional training. Hoffman worked as a public relations intern for Blugold Athletics. She performed a wide variety of tasks, such as launching a newsletter, running social media and post-game coverage, liaising with local press and conducting interviews.

“It was really interesting to work in the fast-paced environments of athletics and even more meaningful to do that locally for my own school.”

On top of her campus involvement, Hoffman has had many opportunities to explore her business interests and develop her professional abilities. Last summer, she worked as a Founder Series intern for Lockton, which specializes in insurance, risk management and employee benefits.

Across her 10-week internship, she collaborated with clients, attended meetings and completed multiple industry case studies, work that culminated in a research project on catastrophic risk.

“The goal was to help executives understand the environment around [catastrophic risk] and what risk mitigation techniques could reduce risks for clients and lower their coverage options,” she explains.

In the course of that research, Hoffman interviewed a range of Lockton employees, supplemented that data with her team’s research and presented their findings to company executives in Kansas City.

“This not only gave me the opportunity to gain interesting insights into the complex insurance environment but also gave me valuable skills in presenting to an important audience of industry experts.”

Although she’ll soon graduate, that level of poise and professionalism — in business, honors, the CWE and across UW-Eau Claire’s campus — will remain an unmistakable part of Hoffman’s brand.

Written by Cami Hoth, a second-year junior studying business communication and marketing at UW-Eau Claire. She is from Stewartville, Minnesota.