{"id":464,"date":"2025-10-21T13:25:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/?p=464"},"modified":"2025-10-21T13:25:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:25:26","slug":"from-classroom-to-cause-how-carly-pitts-found-her-passion-for-purpose-driven-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/2025\/10\/21\/from-classroom-to-cause-how-carly-pitts-found-her-passion-for-purpose-driven-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"From Classroom to Cause: How Carly Pitts Found Her Passion for Purpose-Driven Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Carly Pitts arrived at the Lacy School of Business (LSB) in August 2023, she didn\u2019t have a clear vision for her career \u2013 just a strong desire to learn, grow, and find the right fit. \u201cI wanted to go somewhere that was the perfect size and somewhere decently away from home,\u201d the Minnesota native laughed. \u201cI was looking for a good business school and everyone around me kept saying LSB was one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What sealed the deal was LSB\u2019s hands-on approach. Carly was especially intrigued by the Real Business Experience (RBE), a program that has sophomore students start and run a business from scratch. Her RBE company, Butler Chew, created and sold dog toys. Those first steps in running a business taught her more than just marketing skills \u2013 they taught her how to take initiative, collaborate with a team, and see a project through from idea to execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to learn about business in class, but it\u2019s another to actually build one from the ground up,\u201d the Marketing and Economics student said. \u201cAnd I loved that we had to complete two internships. It guaranteed I\u2019d get real experience before graduating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her curiosity for marketing, though, had begun in high school, through classes and DECA competitions. But it wasn\u2019t until she took Principles of Microeconomics<\/em> with Dr. Whitney Bross <\/a>that she discovered a complementary passion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEconomics tied into my analytical brain and complemented marketing really well,\u201d the senior said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This combination of marketing and economics would shape the kind of professional \u2013 and person \u2013 she wanted to become, guiding the choices she made during internships and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2024, Carly began her Digital Marketing internship with Banner Engineering<\/a>, an automation company that designs sensors to help machines streamline processes. Although she didn\u2019t know much about the industry, her brother had once interned there, and her father built part of his career with the organization \u2013 making it a natural fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She dove into digital marketing, handling competitive research and analytics, including a 12-company competitive analysis that became the centerpiece of her internship. \u201cI learned how to work in an office, lead meetings, and present findings to senior leaders. I also discovered that I love research and analytics \u2013 but maybe not sitting in a cubicle all day,\u201d she admitted with a laugh. Banner gave her a solid foundation in professional discipline and strategy, but it also made her think: what did it mean to use these skills in a way that truly mattered to her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That question followed her overseas, where she returned to GO Ministries<\/a> in the Dominican Republic \u2013 a place that had first captured her heart during a summer trip. GO Ministries empowers local leaders through Church Planting, Medical, and Sports initiatives, supporting communities with mentorship, ministries, mobile clinics, and sports programs that develop the next generation of leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the opportunity arose to intern with them in July 2024, she didn\u2019t hesitate. She spent five weeks initially and then returned for a 12-week internship in the summer of 2025, focusing on storytelling, donor engagement, and volunteer marketing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cNonprofit marketing is really different,\u201d she explained. \u201cYou\u2019re not marketing a product \u2013 you\u2019re marketing a purpose. You\u2019re telling stories that inspire people to give, serve, and be part of something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this role, Carly found a place where her professional skills could serve a bigger mission, and her heart could fully engage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By fall 2025, Carly made a decision that would define the next chapter of her journey: she accepted a full-time role with GO Ministries, headquartered in Louisville, as Coordinator of Media Marketing, beginning right after graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI loved my time at Banner \u2013 it taught me so much \u2013 but I realized I needed to be a little uncomfortable to stay interested,\u201d she said. \u201cWith GO, I found something I\u2019m passionate about. If you love your work, you\u2019re not really working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this role, she\u2019ll manage social media accounts, share stories from local and international teams, and even launch a podcast \u2013 all while traveling regularly to the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, Carly credits LSB with preparing her for both corporate and nonprofit worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t expect my Digital Marketing class with Dr. Chi Zhang <\/a>to help inform my life trajectory as much as it did,\u201d she said. \u201cWe partnered with a nonprofit called COIN<\/a> and created social media campaigns for them. That project helped me understand nonprofit marketing before I even interned abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That combination of classroom learning, hands-on experience, and real-world exploration gave Carly the confidence to chart her own path \u2013 one that connects business with purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what advice she\u2019d give other students still figuring out their paths, her answer was clear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake the risky internship \u2013 the nontraditional one. College is the time to experiment and try something different. You\u2019ll learn what you like and what you don\u2019t, and that\u2019s just as valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if she could talk to her first-year self? \u201cDon\u2019t worry so much,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you get involved and try new things, you\u2019ll figure it out. It takes time, but it all works out the way it\u2019s supposed to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When Carly Pitts arrived at the Lacy School of Business (LSB) in August 2023, she didn\u2019t have a clear vision for her career \u2013 just a strong desire to learn, grow, and find the right fit. \u201cI wanted to go somewhere that was the perfect size and somewhere decently away from home,\u201d the Minnesota native laughed. \u201cI was looking for a good business school and everyone around me kept saying LSB was one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

What sealed the deal was LSB\u2019s hands-on approach. Carly was especially intrigued by the Real Business Experience (RBE), a program that has sophomore students start and run a business from scratch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2812,"featured_media":465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/lacybusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}