Cheryl Desjardin, Citizen Teacher: Video

Cheryl Desjardin is a graphic designer at Fidelity Investments. Once a week she and two fellow Citizen Teachers from Fidelity hosted students from the Dever-McCormack K-8 School in Dorchester, MA, and taught them a 10-week marketing apprenticeship to middle school students. Watch Cheryl's journey here! http://youtu.be/YZwCmOwIBQ0

Across Boston, five Citizen Schools program sites had marketing apprenticeships - and they all were preparing to compete in the same competition: who could make the best marketing campaign for First Night Boston (the Boston New Year's Eve Celebration). The apprenticeships culminated with a marketing WOW! presentation, where each apprenticeship class revealed their campaigns a panel of judges from marketing and PR agencies and an audience of hundreds of people.

While it wasn't smooth sailing the whole way through, Cheryl's team learned the ins and outs of marketing, interviewed an official from the beloved Boston celebration and came up with the plan to add food to the occasion (which has never been done) and promote the news. The kids came up with the slogan, "First Night, First Bite," and acted out an energetic commercial. During the Q&A session after their presentation, Cheryl's students were almost fighting over the microphone for the opportunity to speak. After one of her students explained his multichannel strategy, celebrity judge Steve Mooney from Jack Morton Worldwide shouted, "You're hired!"