As my first semester with the A.C. Nielsen Center comes to close, I can't believe how much I have learned so far! First and foremost, we have amazing students! All of our 20 students are so smart, talented and genuinely nice people; and every alum and Board member I meet continues to surprise me with how much everyone cares for the Center. I feel fortunate to be associated with such a fine group of people. Here are a few updates from the Center:

Student Employment Update: There are several students still looking for full time and summer internships, so please contact me or the Business Career Center if your company has any hiring needs. This newsletter lists where the Class of 2007 went to work - check it out.

Student Semester Projects: Many of our students work on actual company marketing research projects during the semester for a Project Assistantship that pays for their tuition, health insurance and monthly stipend. If you or your company has a project that you think may make a good student semester project, please let us know. The more projects we have, the more student funding we can offer.

Summit 2008: The 2008 Summit dates have been set. This year's alumni reunion and marketing research conference will offer a Thursday night dinner with the External Advisory Board & current students, a full Friday of seminars and speakers, and we will have a limited number of football tickets for the Saturday game as well. Mark your calendars for October 2 - 4, 2008. More information will follow early in 2008.

Prospective Students: We are in the midst of recruiting the Classes of 2010 and 2011. If you know of any co-workers or industry associates who are budding marketing researchers, please send them our way. Both Binnu and I work with prospective students to help them understand what an MBA with a career specialization in marketing research means for potential career implications. We also provide them with an overview of companies that hire our students, offer advice on how they can best prepare for the application process. Please let us know if you have any candidates you would like us to contact.

Annual Giving: Our annual alumni giving campaign letters went out in early December. I hope you are able to contribute. Those alumni donations go directly to the Nielsen Fellow Alumni Scholarship fund to sponsor students' education. This school year is the first year we had raised enough money to distribute the scholarship. Brian Hart, Class of 2008, is the recipient and is volunteering at the United Way of Dane County in their marketing research department to, in turn, give back to the community for his scholarship. Your donations give back twice - first to the Nielsen Scholar and secondly to a local non-profit organization. Thank You!

Keep in Touch: If you have an updated work or personal address, employer, title or even email address - please let us know. We want to be able to keep in touch! Send updates to bhill@bus.wisc.edu or just reply to this email. Also if you have any questions or suggestions for the Center, please give me a call or email at any time.

I hope you enjoy this Fall 2007 newsletter. It includes some of our semester highlights - including a trip to Chicago to meet with A.C. Nielsen Jr. himself! and a site visit to Kraft. A big Thank You to Mr. Nielsen and Kraft for hosting our visits.

Thank for all of your on-going support of the A.C. Nielsen Center,

Kristin Branch