A Day in the Life of a Marketing Peer Financial Advisor

Hi everyone! I’m Samantha Mallett, a senior at DePaul University studying Marketing with a concentration in Digital Marketing and I work on campus as a Marketing Peer Financial Advisor (PFA) for DePaul’s Financial Fitness Team. As one of the five sectors within the DePaul Central department, we strive to help students better manage their personal finances. Our primary focuses include: one-on-one advising for students, quarterly EDGE team presentations, and presenting to student organizations. Students come to us for help with loan repayments, building credit, budgeting, and other financial advising topics. No two days look the same for us which makes my job so exciting. Being a PFA motivates me to step outside of my comfort zone and find ways to continuously be innovative.

As the Marketing PFA, my role varies because I focus on increasing awareness of the Financial Fitness team and student organization outreach. Every day I plan out social media posts for our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter pages (@DePaulCentral) using Excel. Once my supervisor approves those posts, I use Hootsuite to schedule posts in advance. Managing our social media content allows me to express my creativity – something that I’ve always enjoyed in the workplace. I’m constantly thinking of new ways to expand our audience to more students to influence them to use our services. Also, it’s motivated me to increase my graphic design skills by unique creating social media graphics such as this one pun for Valentine’s Day. When I’m not working on social media, I’m reaching out to student organizations for potential presentations from out teams. After presenting in one of their meetings or event, many students are motivated to schedule a one-on-one advising session with us. Some even come back for second or third appointments.

Although we’re a small team of only 6 people, we’re mighty in our impact. I’ve learned not only about creating social media content, but the needs of our DePaul students. We’re continuing St. Vincent de Paul’s mission of determining what must be done for the greater good of our students and I’m proud to be a part of this impact. I’m thankful to be the Marketing PFA and I look forward to the Financial Fitness team’s continuous growth.