Most of the time undergraduate students do not get an opportunity to speak one-on-one with representatives from big name companies, but the opportunity came true for three lucky Mercyhurst Intelligence Studies students.
Juniors Alex Edwards, Chris Robben and Ryan Knoll got to speak with Activision Blizzard Vice President of Sales Dave Freeman.
Freeman spoke with the students after seeing a project that they did for their Competitive Intelligence class, which is taught by Assistant Professor of Intelligence Studies Shelly Freyn.
Freyn assigned a project where groups of students had to pick one of their favorite companies. They then had to look at the company’s competition, market trends, financial analysis and patent analysis. Students then had to take all of this information and make strategy models using it.
Freyn sends projects she feels are especially strong to the company the students chose.
Freyn sent an email to Freeman on March 24, with the project attached. Two days later she received a call from Freeman.
He said that he receives projects sometimes, but typically does not read them. However, he read this project, and said it was one of the best student projects he has ever received.
He set up a conference call with the students and gave them a sneak peek of the industry.
He gave students insight on the company. He also shared information with them that is not available to the public.
“Industry is in a state on inflection and we are changing the value we deliver,” Freeman said.
Edwards and Robben gave their reactions to this whole experience.
“It was a great opportunity to get to speak with Mr. Freeman,” said Edwards. “Undergrads don’t get opportunities like this very often, and I thought it was a good experience to get feedback and see how accurate our analysis was.”
“I’m a pretty passionate gamer. I could talk about video games for hours. That I got to talk to someone like Dave about video games, not just as my favorite hobby, but also as a business, was extremely cool and frankly blows my mind,” said Robben.
“He was also kind enough to provide our project with a fantastic letter of recommendation that I’m sure is going to really help me in my professional life when I start looking for jobs.”
Freyn commented on the impact of these projects.
“These projects that students do can really make an impression and impact on these companies,” said Freyn. “If you take some of these projects seriously, they can help you stand out in the crowd, especially if you pick the industries you are really interested in.”
For more information, please contact Shelly Freyn at (814) 824-2465 or sfreyn@mercyhurst.edu.