This program has been enormously successful in encouraging, rewarding and showcasing our best marketing majors.

The meeting venue is comparable to that of attending a professional meeting like that of the American Marketing Association.

The corporate partners truly appreciate the professionalism of this program. Seven of the corporate partners/directors have been with the program from its inception. Several have commented that they have gone to other universities, like USC and UC Riverside, and have not had the success in finding potential candidates as they have with the Honors Networking Program. All of the corporate partners feel that this program should serve as a model because of the added value it provides.

Students must have at least a 3.0 grade-point-average - or if they are just short of that, at least recommendations from two marketing faculty members to even be invited. The biannual breakfast meetings are by invitation only.

Before they can attend, the students have to go through an orientation meeting with either Neil Granitz, who is co-director of the program, or myself. At this orientation, we explain the program, define and discuss networking, tell them what is required of them - business attire and resumes - and how the process works. And that they can participate every semester until they graduate, as long as they maintain their high grades. So as they meet the corporate partners, relationships develop and it's through these relationships that they get interviews that may lead to job offers.

There are a balance of companies from various industries that take part in the Honors Networking Program. Participating companies include Minolta Business Solutions, Target, Macy's, Helpmates, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Hunter Barth, Kent H. Landsberg, Donahue Schriber, Bank of America, PepsiCo, Walgreens, Mervyn's, Hershey Foods, ADP, Celtic Leasing, Wallace, Compass International and the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau.

Companies are invited to attend the program as corporate guests the first time. Then they can join the program as a corporate partner. There is an annual fee that they pay to help support the cost of the program.

In addition, several corporate partners also sponsor scholarships for the HNP students. Target, Enterprise, Celtic Leasing, ADP, Walgreens and Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau have all been very generous in funding annual scholarships for our students.

Many of the partners have volunteered to participate with some of our marketing classes by providing guest speakers and sponsoring field trips.