The true story of why I choked up in front of my college class

Mark Schaefer
3 min readOct 31, 2024

I’ve had the honor of teaching a college class in digital marketing for the Rutgers Mini MBA program for 10 years now. I’ve taught dozens of classes in front of hundreds of students but last week for the first time, I became so emotional it was hard for me to speak.

It was unexpected, and I thought it would make an interesting story for you today.

All things human

In my undergraduate college classes at West Virginia University, I majored in journalism. I had always liked to write but it was the people of the journalism school that compelled me to choose this major. They wanted to work in a world that was seeking truth and I wanted to be part of that.

But in my junior year, I took a required class in marketing. I literally fell in love at first sight.

When I cracked open my textbook, the classic Principles of Marketing by Dr. Philip Kotler, I saw that he described marketing as the intersection of psychology, sociology, and anthropology. What an interesting combination!

Marketing was all things human! Who wouldn’t want to work in a career like that?

I was hooked for life.

Marketing in decline

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Mark Schaefer
Mark Schaefer

Written by Mark Schaefer

Keynote speaker, marketing strategy consultant, Rutgers U faculty and author of 10 books including KNOWN, Marketing Rebellion, and Belonging to the Brand!

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