Mary-jane Barca Advertising Degree, Charles Sturt University

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday January 5, 2009

Melinda Ham

MARY-JANE BARCA, who has just completed her final year of Charles Sturt University's advertising degree, has won a prestigious scholarship for a 10-week work placement at the New York headquarters of BBDO, a global advertising agency.

"Everything is covered: my flight, my accommodation, breakfast and dinner every day. I just can't believe it," says the 22-year-old, pictured left.

And when she returns from her trip to the US, she will start a job at a Sydney-based marketing agency, for which she was headhunted.

Barca started a structural engineering degree at the University of Sydney.

"At the end of first year I knew this wasn't what I wanted," she says. "I had always been interested in design and marketing, so I took an advertising course at TAFE."

She then applied successfully to CSU and moved to Bathurst.

"In your final year you get to work with real clients on real campaigns," she says. "It's amazing. We did so much work in groups. We gave 1000 per cent of our time and often just slept over at the university to finish projects."

© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald

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