There’s always something going on in the School of Mass Communication, but it seems that things have moved into hyperspeed lately. We’ve just survived midterms, with all those exams and papers, and now we’re moving rapidly into that part of the semester during which our time management skills are severely tested.
SMC ad students returned from the Addy Awards, sponsored by the Ad Club of New Orleans, with an armload of trophies. Erica Guastella won a Silver ADDY, and Virginia Peters-Rodbell won a Gold ADDY. And the Ad Team – aka Rebirth Advertising – took two awards, including Best in Show for the student division. Rebirth, as you might recall, created a campaign called “Let Life Be Your Runway” for JCPenney for last year’s American Advertising Federation National Student Advertising Competition. Rebirth is currently hard at work on a campaign for Nissan that they will unveil at the District 7 NSAC presentations in April in Nashville.
The staff of the Shawn M. Donnelley Center for Nonprofit Communications sponsored their first workshop in the series called the Nonprofits Toolkit. The workshop, entitled, “GRANTS: Hammering out the details,” showed representatives from area nonprofits how to fill out applications and grants forms for greater success. The next workshop, “PRESENTATION SOFTWARE: Nuts and bolts of presentations,” is scheduled for March 19.
The Bateman team has just wrapped up its month-long campaign called “Choose Dat.” After submitting their plans book, they’ll be waiting with bated breath to see if they are among the top three teams in the country that go on to make a live formal presentation in Minneapolis in May. (By the way, Loyola’s teams have the best record in the history of the Bateman competition.)
This semester’s combined PR/Ad Campaigns course (the first time the two sequences have merged for one strategic communications capstone) is working with the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. The two competing teams – Street Technique and Matador – have turned in their proposals and are now moving forward on their tactical executions.
Internships are a hot topic this time of year as students finalize their summer internship plans. I recently attended a gathering at Xavier where I met with representatives from Dreamworks Animation, NBC Universal and the Golf Channel about their summer opportunities. (Apply now, if you haven’t already. Interviews are going on at this time for most summer internships.)
The internship class recently talked about what not to wear on interviews and on the job, one of the most vigorous discussions we have all semester. Coming up are our mock interviews, with outside professionals coming in to “interview” students for internships and jobs, with critiques following. April 24 we’ll have our portfolio review, with all senior mass comm majors meeting with media and communication professionals to give tips on how to best package yourself for those upcoming interviews.
Teaming with the Press Club of New Orleans, the SMC sponsored the 36th annual Silver Scribe workshops and competition. With support from The Maroon, the SMC provided learning experiences for students from area high schools, newspaper critiques and contests. At the end of the day, Grace King High School was named the most outstanding school, and Mary Margaret Monistere of Mt. Carmel Academy won individual honors.
And we’re far from done. March 17 we’ll be part of the President’s Open House, showcasing the sequences and successes of the SMC and our various student opportunities and organizations. We’ll officially begin advising for summer and fall scheduling on March 19. A month later, we’ll recognize our most outstanding SMCers at the annual Spring Fiesta.
If you want more information about the School of Mass Communication or to find out what ELSE we have on the calendar, drop by our office (Communications/Music 332) or visit us online at http://css.loyno.edu/masscomm/.
