Building Wildcat Connections: Jazmin Beltran '16 BSBA (Marketing)
Jazmin Beltran was born in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico and grew up in Mexico. Her family moved to Laredo, Texas, when she was in high school. “My parents always pushed me to pursue higher education, so that was never a question for me,” she said. “I moved to Sahuarita, Arizona, at the beginning of my junior year in high school and visited the UA campus a couple of times, so obviously I fell in love with it and decided to apply.”
She started as a pre-business student and was admitted to the ELITE program. “My dad played a big part in my decision to major in marketing. He told me, ‘Go into marketing, all the decisions come from the marketing department!’ and I believed him.” She committed to marketing during her sophomore year. “I got an on-campus job at the UA Student Affairs Marketing office and the range of experiences I had in that job made me fall in love with marketing and advertising as a career.”
Beltran built experience in copywriting, video and photography production, and social media through her role with the Student Affairs Marketing team. “I also joined the National Student Advertising Competition team under Ed Ackerley, so I got to work on a marketing campaign for Snapple and we competed in Utah this year,” she said. “I dedicated most of my time outside of school to gaining more experience in marketing, so now I have a lot to talk about in interviews.”
During her time at Eller, Beltran also served as president of the Eller Hispanic Honorary and Eller mentors coordinator of Eller College Student Council. “The Eller Hispanic Honorary connected me to a group of people I now consider my familia,” she said. “Diversity is really important, especially when students come into such a university as big as the UA. Having EHH in my college experience definitely made me feel more comfortable going into business and even going to school.”
As president, she built connections with other diversity-focused organizations within the College. “It’s in our hands to make things bigger and better for everyone else,” she said. “Similarly, with student council, I collaborated with ECSC members to create newsletters for pre-business students to give them student-to-student tips and resources for their first steps in college. I have made lifelong connections with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.”
Beltran credits the Eller alumni community with support during her development as a young professional. “Lea Marquez-Peterson, CEO of Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, has been a great inspiration for me,” she said. “It is amazing to see such a successful and caring business woman show interest in the community and people.” Tremain Ravenell, advisor to the Eller Hispanic Honorary, has also been influential. “He has been a mentor and friend to me and I know I can count on him for professional advice and support in anything I need.” Career coach Marisa Allen connected her with Courtney Samoly, an Eller alumna, for interviewing advice. “She showed excitement in the possibility of a Wildcat joining the team and gave me tips for the interview. I felt a lot more prepared and confident after reading her kind email. I had always heard about the Wildcat family, and it’s people like Lea, Tremain, and Courtney that really showed me the impact of alumni connections.”
Heading into graduation, Beltran has an exciting project in process: she’s running a Snapchat takeover. “Social media has always been a big interest of mine, and the social media group discussion meetings I’ve coordinated at work have introduced me to many social media managers here at the UA,” she said. “A graduate student did a Snapchat takeover last year for the same account, so it will be great to show the undergraduate perspective. I won’t have to work too hard to make it interesting, since the UA commencement is always a blast, so go follow “uarizona” on Snapchat!”