Inspired by the help and guidance he received from his peers and professors at the BYU Marriott School of Business, marketing senior Parker Stohlton decided to give back. Stohlton’s efforts eventually culminated with the creation of a program to help pre-business students land internships and gain valuable work experience. Driven by his passion for marketing and making connections with others, Stohlton works hard to pass on the baton to the next generation of BYU Marriott students.
Shortly after beginning classes at BYU, Stohlton began pursuing his interest in marketing and joined BYU Marriott’s Marketing Association (MA). Upon joining the club, Stohlton began almost immediately being mentored by juniors and seniors in the MA who took him under their wing. “The upperclassmen went out of their way to help me find opportunities, review my résumé, help prepare me for interviews, and more,” he explains. “Thanks to my mentors’ help and my experience in the group, by the time I completed my freshman year, I already had quite a bit of marketing experience.”
It was during his senior year that Stohlton realized a new idea that could positively impact other students in a similar way to the support he had received as a pre-business student. As a vice president for the MA pre-marketing mentorship team, Stohlton works to provide resources for pre-business students and has even created an internship program to pair pre-business students with entry-level internships. “The idea for the internship program for pre-business students came to me because I wanted to create more formal opportunities for students to forge connections and gain experience,” he says.
Stohlton reached out to his network connections and other MA members, asking for entry-level marketing internships that pre-business students with little to no experience could participate in. “Since this program started, the MA has helped eighteen students receive internships and experiences,” Stohlton says.
In addition to the strong connection he feels between his peers, Stohlton also feels a great sense of support and care from faculty and staff at BYU Marriott. As part of his consumer behavior class with professor Darron Billeter, Stohlton completed a product innovation project on Q-tips. As part of the class, Billeter brought in several CEOs and CMOs from Utah companies to help students with their work. “Based on the feedback from the executives who spoke to the class, I saw improvement in my marketing research skills. I am grateful for Dr. Billeter’s and others’ efforts in facilitating awesome learning opportunities for BYU Marriott students,” he says.
Along with providing students with experiential learning opportunities, many of Stohlton’s professors also emphasize an important principle to Stohlton and his fellow marketing peers: marketers need to be ethical. “The marketing professors at BYU Marriott truly stress the importance of not taking advantage of people,” he says. “My professors have all made a point to teach me and other students how to fulfill people's positive needs and wants in an ethical way.”
During summer 2020, Stohlton took his experiences and knowledge from BYU Marriott out into the business world, completing an unexpected internship in Montana, due to his original internship with American Airlines being unfortunately canceled. “For the first two weeks of my internship, I didn’t have a place to stay because my move from Provo was so sudden. So I just camped out every night, and I'd wake up in the morning and go to a rest stop and take a shower in the sink, which was a wild start to the summer,” he says.
While his living circumstances were initially challenging, Stohlton eventually found a place to stay over the summer and settled into his new role. During this experience in Montana, Stohlton discovered his passion for marketing for mortgage brokers. “I was essentially a one-person marketing department during my internship,” he says. "After a successful summer learning how to market mortgages, I decided to start my own marketing agency that specializes in mortgage brokers.” Shortly after finishing his internship, Stohlton created a startup company called MorHomes Consulting, which specializes in providing mortgage brokers with marketing solutions.
After Stohlton graduates in April 2021, his plans include pursuing an MBA and, along with continuing to build his company, becoming a brand manager at a consumer-packaged goods company. “I feel a natural drive towards marketing, and I love it because I can connect with people,” he says. “Marketing is essentially being able to tell stories of products and people that can help satisfy their needs and wants. That's why I love it.”
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Writer: Emily Atwood
