Alice Founder Sam Cupero – Where Is She Now?
Bella Carpino | Writing Contributor
With March being a time of the year set out to recognize and celebrate the specific achievements and contributions of women throughout history, it only felt right to highlight Alice’s very own marketing editor of the publication’s first two issues back in 2015.
Sam Cupero joined Alice during her senior year at The University of Alabama after discovering an interest in marketing, especially when she found that she could apply it to her love for fashion. As Alice’s very first marketing editor, Cupero used her background in fashion merchandising to create a new position that she would fill that would accumulate product and dress models who would then be pictured in published articles. Cupero created several relationships with a variety of boutiques and clothing stores in Tuscaloosa to dress the models for editorial and advertising and would travel to locations as distant as the beaches of Florida to take part in photoshoots for Alice. She not only tripled the amount of product accumulated for features between the first and second issues but also designed a marketing campaign that helped introduce the magazine to UA’s campus.
The summer before joining Alice, Cupero took part in an internship for a Public Relations company in New York City where she learned many skills that she would take back to Tuscaloosa with her that next Fall. Sam created her creative role within the Alice Magazine team which she knew was a necessary component in growing the organization that they had previously lacked. In her marketing editor role with Alice, Cupero gained several skills such as learning what it truly looks like to work as a team with one common goal in mind, that is, to create pieces that truly speak to the students of UA.
She even confessed, “What I did for Alice Mag, I don’t feel like I would have gotten to the next step of my career without.” Not only did Cupero gain supportive guidance from other roles within the publication, but she also is convinced that the skills and experience she gained from Alice helped her stem into her current career path.
Today, nine years after embarking on her impactful journey with Alice Magazine, Sam Cupero has taken on the role of Senior Marketing Manager at Fortune International Group in Miami, Florida. Her specific job focuses on the social media, public relations, and creative management aspects of the company. Cupero states that, “Every day is unique,” but involves managing residential and real estate developments, branding designs, and event coordination and execution.
Even with years of job experience under her belt and managing a busy lifestyle in The Sunshine State, Sam Cupero continues to follow the publication that deepened her love and passion for project management, social media, and more.
“I love keeping up with Alice and seeing how far it has come,” she explained.
Cupero has watched Alice grow over the years and values the way that the publication not only communicates to students of The University but also how it develops its contributors and people that are a part of the publication and provides them with a creative outlet, just as she had experienced her senior year of college.
Cupero highlighted that Alice Magazine has evolved in a multitude of ways over the years. She has watched Alice long after her graduation from the university publish articles that address much more in-depth topics such as geopolitical climates and the LGBTQ+ community, and even create its digital component online which had not yet been done while she was still a part of the publication team.
Alice’s very own Sam Cupero’s hard work, determination, and passion that she portrayed both during her time with Alice and throughout her career journey that led her to her current position shines a light on her character and the month of March that seeks to recognize accomplishments such as her own. This month strives to honor women whose contributions have paved the way for more opportunities and whose accomplishments have caused them to set an example for others, just as Sam Cupero did for members of the Alice Magazine team as its first Marketing Editor and continued to do so by allowing Alice to shape her throughout her successful career path.
Bella Carpino is a senior at UA in her fifth semester of nursing school. Bella is from Los Angeles, CA, and in May will begin her job as a Pediatric Nurse in Atlanta.
