We strongly encourage all of our marketing students to enroll in our MKT-490 Internship Course. This is a pass/fail course, normally worth three credit hours. Internships have been arranged with numerous firms in the greater Bowling Green area such as Camping World, The Corvette Museum, Fruit of the Loom, among others, and with our ability to communicate via the internet, we have even established internships with firms all over the country such as the Orlando Magic and Disney World. These types of internships give our students valuable, hands-on experience that allows them to directly apply what they are learning in the classroom and gives them a competitive advantage when pursuing their first career position after graduation.

Our faculty has arranged field trips to firms such as the Wal-Mart Regional Distribution Center, Fruit of the Loom headquarters, Dell Computer Corporation, among many others in order to demonstrate the actual applications of the concepts and strategies taught in the classroom. It is one thing, for instance, to read about or hear about a modern, hi-tech product warehousing and distribution center, but it is an entirely different experience to actually see it by participating in a field trip to such a facility and observe, firsthand, how it functions.

Business leaders are invited into the classrooms as guest speakers on a regular basis. These successful business people share their valuable knowledge with our students, helping to bring the classroom and the real world together. Because of our central location, we are able to draw upon vast expertise from a wide area surrounding Bowling Green, including Louisville to our North and Nashville just a short distance to the South.

Nearly all of our marketing courses include some type of orientated project, experiential exercise or computer simulation. These kinds of assignments are designed to give our students experience that they can directly apply to the real world and thus, to their careers once they graduate from WKU. Many of these activities require the students to interact with local businesses, not only exposing them to the real world, but opening doors through networking which often result in employment opportunities upon graduation.

For an example, Dr. Gotlieb's "Marketing Research" classes conduct real marketing research projects for some well known organizations such as WBKO Television, Domino's Pizza, Camping World, Greenwood Mall, and Banker's Bank of Kentucky. And, Dr. Milliman's "Marketing on the World-Wide Web" class developed web marketing plans for several firms such as Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurants, Boone and Gilbert Outdoor Signs, A3 Business Solutions, Inc., among others.

One especially salient characteristic of our WKU marketing faculty is that they all have substantial real world experience in addition to their in-depth formal educations. We have faculty that have successfully managed retail operations, wholesale distribution centers, owned and operated their own businesses (including an internet marketing firm), and have served as consultants to businesses, both domestic and foreign, and from very small to very large. This means our faculty have "walked the walk," as the expression goes. Our WKU marketing faculty brings the classroom alive with real world examples, making classes more interesting and stimulating.