Premier Advertising Award For Minority Students Won
By Two at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus
— AAF Recognizes Single Mom Tanya Sweetie and Vietnam Vet David Glover —

Brooklyn, N.Y. — The American Advertising Federation named two at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus to its 2004 Most Promising Minority Students Program, which connects leading advertisers and agencies with the nation’s top college seniors nationwide.

The AAF is sending 32 of the best and brightest minority students of advertising to the Waldorf Astoria in New York City on February 12-13. They will take part in a unique program with networking opportunities, plus interviewing and coaching from industry professionals.

Marketing senior Tanya M. Sweetie of St. Albans, Queens, president of the Marketing Society, will attend as a finalist for the program; David Glover of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, also a marketing senior, was selected as a member of the Honor Roll. The students exemplify the determination typical of the Brooklyn Campus — she is a young single mom; he is a 59-year-old Vietnam veteran.

Born in Brooklyn, raised in Harlem and residing in Queens, Sweetie is a true New Yorker. A single mother who also works and attends school full-time, she serves as an excellent role model for her nine-year-old daughter. The key to juggling all her responsibilities, she says is "to keep a planner, a cell-phone, a computer and people who can keep me motivated."

Sweetie’s role model, according to the essay she submitted to qualify for the AAF program, is Ann Fudge, the chief executive of Young & Rubicam Inc, the first African American to lead a major advertising firm. "What most inspires me is that she broke through the ‘proverbial glass ceiling,’ defying all notions about race and gender status quo in corporate America," says Sweetie.

Sweetie came to Long Island University after earning an associate’s degree from Monroe College. "I like everything about marketing," she says. "It allows you to combine business with creative skills, the opportunities for growth are endless and there are many options for career choices. It’s one of those fields where you cannot get bored."

Consistently on the Dean’s List, Sweetie says, "Excellence is a standard and you have to be willing to hold that standard very high." A member of Alpha Chi, the national college honor society, and listed in "Who’s Who Among College Students," she wants to go on to law school and become an entertainment lawyer.

For David Glover, a father of three and vocalist in his church choir, being named to AAF’s Honor Roll has been a source of wonder. "I am amazed at receiving this honor and amused that I am even here. But it is a good confidence builder, a statement of awareness that I have something to offer," says the native of Wilmington, Delaware.

Raised by his father, Glover says, "I am the product of a family that is marginally educated — my father was illiterate." Education was not easy for him to get either, although he had academic ability. He recalls that $12.69 changed his life — that was the amount he needed to complete registration for his junior year at a regional college. Unable to pay, he was told he could not continue his studies. As a result, he joined the Marines and served 13 months in Vietnam. To this day, he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In 1969, he came to Brooklyn and stayed. Over the years, he married twice, had children and worked in various sales positions at major corporations. He also worked providing support services for attorneys. "I did everything except argue points of law and type," he says.

Glover has also been able to pursue acting at the National Black Theater, and now is back singing after a 25-year break to earn a living. About a decade ago, one day at church with his young daughter, he recalls hearing a voice tell him to get back to his music. "It created the most profound feeling," he says. "It took me on a journey learning about what faith is." He now sings for the First AME Zion Church of Brooklyn, and has toured Europe with different choirs..

Glover recognizes that his career has followed an unusual path. "Most black men in America do not have the selectivity - I’ve followed what I liked. I’ve been able to be creative." He attributes it to "the magnificence of God."

In 2003, he decided to complete his education at LIU, where he is able to combine two of his loves. "They have a fine vocal jazz program and a good marketing program," he says.

For his essay for AAF, he chose Madame C.J. Walker, the first black millionaire in the early 1900s as a manufacturer of hair products for black women. "I found her to be an excellent role model for men and women. She came up from the ranks of the poor and itinerant and was self-made."

For the future, Glover hopes to develop a music production company and is working on that right now. "I intend to market and advertise my craft," he says. "My motto like the Marines’ is Semper Fidelis — always faithful."

Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus opened in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. More than 30,000 students currently are enrolled at the University’s three residential and three regional compuses, including more than 11,000 at the Brooklyn Campus.