Meet the Vice President: Rylan Piepergerdes

Rylan Piepergerdes

Hello everyone! My name is Rylan Piepergerdes. I am a sophomore majoring in Marketing Research and Accounting. I am from Saint Joseph, Missouri, which is just north of Kansas City by about 40 minutes. My current interests vary from many things; mainly right now, I have been enjoying Pickleball, Disc Golf, and playing board games. My favorite board game right now has been Catan, but nobody in AMA will play it with me :(. My plans for after graduation are not set in stone right now. I currently have an internship/CO-OP at O’Reilly in their Marketing Analytics team, so for now, my future plans are centered around them. My internship with them has helped me so much in my development as a marketer, teaching me about the whole backend that is not usually seen.

When I first came to college, I had little to no knowledge of what AMA even was. I learned about it during my pre-college summer registration from a member of the organization named Ethan. I had done a few organizations like AMA in high school, namely DECA and FBLA, but AMA sounded like something a little more focused on the path I wanted to go. So, since I had no other plans, I went to the AMA table during the Student Organization festival, and the people seemed really nice, so it was decided I would join AMA.

When I went to the first meeting, the people were very nice, and by the second meeting, I was playing mini golf with the president, but it was more than just the nice people. The club had talked about a conference called ICC down in New Orleans that they go to every year. It sounded like so much fun, so I had to go, so the rest is history, and here I am today writing this message. My role on the exec board is kind of an all-arounder. As the Vice President, I try to help everyone with each of their parts, whether it is tabling for new members or helping set up the car show. I try to be helpful wherever I can. I also plan the travel and coordination of our trip to ICC. Overall, I try to be someone who can be useful wherever needed, depending on the time of year.

AMA has taught me a lot, mainly teaching me about marketing myself and how to build myself as a marketer by leveraging my experience. On the professional side, AMA helped me get my internship. I leveraged my experience in the club, and they loved it. There are a few reasons to join AMA because it has something for everyone. THE PEOPLE of AMA are absolutely amazing.

If you are looking for a place to put on your resume and learn professional skills, AMA has that too, or if you're just looking for an escape from class, you can find that as well. AMA is a great club and has something for absolutely everybody. Leaving you with one piece of advice, but put yourself out there. You are only in college for 4 years, so make it count, do everything you can, and have a good time doing it. Have a great semester, everybody!