Building on its groundbreaking academic degree program and well-attended industry seminars on Hispanic marketing, DePaul University will offer a new certificate program in multicultural marketing and a seminar on the powerful Hispanic youth market for professionals this fall.

The Multicultural Marketing Certificate Program will meet for five consecutive Thursdays beginning Oct. 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the DePaul Center, Room 7514, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., Chicago. Utilizing the expertise and research of DePaul’s Kellstadt Marketing Center, the program will provide participants with an understanding of how to market to an increasingly diverse society and provide tools to target various segments of the Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American markets in the United States.

“We created this certificate program because of the business community’s enthusiastic demand for more educational offerings in multicultural marketing after we launched half-day seminars and a new undergraduate degree focusing on this subject last year,” said Loida Rosario, marketing faculty member and director of partner relations for the program.

“Companies are seeing the demographic projections that by 2050, more than half of the U.S. population will be of a non-European ethnic background. They know they need to employ professionals who are educated to deal with this major shift.”

Nikki Davis, vice president and account director for Burrell Communications, a top multicultural communications agency in Chicago, will be among guest speakers.

Rosario also will lead a separate, half-day seminar on an important segment of the multicultural marketplace – Hispanic youth –on Nov. 2 from 9 a.m. to noon. Titled “The New ‘Baby Boomers’: Hispanic Youth—Growth and Influence”, the program will take an advanced look at trends involving the nation’s more than 43 million Hispanic youth consumers.

“This seminar is ideal for marketing professionals, entrepreneurs, business managers and media professionals who need to better understand the dynamics of the Hispanic youth market and its implications for their businesses,” Rosario said.

DePaul’s College of Commerce became one of only two universities across the nation to offer a degree in Hispanic marketing when it launched its Multicultural Marketing-Hispanic Marketplace program last year. “This initiative is just the beginning,” said marketing professor Steve Kelly, program co-director. “Our vision is to eventually introduce multicultural marketing graduate programs that offer expertise in reaching the African American, Asian American, and other consumer segments.”

The fee for the five-session Multicultural Marketing Certificate Program is $795. The fee for the half-day seminar, “The New ‘Baby Boomers’: Hispanic Youth-Growth and Influence,” is $149. Both programs will be held in room 7514 for the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd. For more information and registration, contact Jurate Murray at 312/362-5913 or jmurray9@depaul.edu.