Alumni Profiles
Meet a few of our graduates!
Jeanine Debar, Class of 1988
Graduating in 1988, Jeanine studied with a marketing major and a psychology minor. She is the president of BrandTuitive, a branding and marketing agency in New York City. In her time at SUNY Plattsburgh, she was the president of the Marketing Club. Her leadership role gave her interpersonal experiences that were invaluable once she started working. She enjoyed her marketing classes as it provided a foundation of terms, concepts and principles. She never had an internship since they did not hold the same value of growth. Her company, BrandTuitive, has a very serious internship program to shape the interns into different and better versions of themselves from when they first enter.
Jeanine said, “If I were in college today, I would seek out internships that provide a high level of training and development and that let me get my hands dirty on real work. There is no substitute. But you have to find the right one and you have to do the work to find the right one. That would have been an amazing complement to what I leaned through my coursework.”
Matthew Robert, Class of 2015
Graduating in 2015, Matthew double majored in marketing and management with a minor in accounting. Matthew is an account executive at Adworkshop, a full-service digital advertising agency. His responsibilities are client communication, project management, and marketing research and strategy. As a student at Plattsburgh, he served as president and treasurer of the Marketing Club. Matthew was inducted into the entrepreneurship honor society, Sigma Nu Tau. He also competed in Free Enterprise Marathon Speak-Off competitions. He enjoyed almost all marketing classes he took here.
Matthew said, “SUNY Plattsburgh prepared me to be a leader. The support and motivation received from my colleagues and professors encouraged me to speak up and bring new ideas to the table, ultimately helping me land my dream job at Adworkshop.”
Kevin Clayton, Class of 2016
Graduating in 2016, Kevin majored in entrepreneurship, international business, business administration, and political science. Kevin is the Founder of Indago Innovations, LLC; he is responsible for everything that needs to be completed, from software development to updating the website. As a Plattsburgh student, he served as treasurer for Sigma Nu Tau; treasurer of Model UN; treasurer and vice president of CEO Club; co-president of the Honors Students Association; brother of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity; senator, vice president, and president of Student Association; and statistics tutor in the Learning Center. The extracurricular activities he took part in gave him the chance to challenge himself and push beyond his limits. His favorite classes were new product development with Dr. Heroux, entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship with Dr. Laurent Josien, and small business development with Dr. Richard Gottschall. These courses expanded on the foundation of business classes and provided useful information for operating his business.
Kevin said, “Through trial and error, the emphasis being on the ’error,’ I learned how to motivate myself and manage my time. Now that I’m my own boss, that has proved to be invaluable.”