Undergraduate Student News

MAYLEE MOORE was selected to be on the American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) student advisory committee for 2021-22. She serves on the national committee with 25 students representing all 15 AAF Districts from around the country and will give important feedback and guidance for all AAF Education Services programming.

Several students were nominated for the Hearst Journalism Contest. JESSICA JURCEK was nominated for her story “The numbers on Black faculty and students tell the story,” which appeared in AccessU: Black on Campus and the Summer 2021 issue of the Murphy Reporter. KATELYN VUE was nominated for her story “Some 50,000 Minnesota households have fallen behind on rent. With the COVID eviction moratorium ending soon, housing nonprofits want to help renters apply for help catching up,” which appeared in Sahan Journal. AVA KIAN was nominated and placed 10th for her story “Minnesota baby born at 21 weeks, celebrates first birthday, sets world record,” published in the Pioneer Press. MACY HARDER was nominated for “The extraordinary life of the campus squirrel,” published in the Minnesota Daily. KENNEDY CUMMINS and ADAM BIENINGEN were both nominated for the Television Features category.

BACKPACK, the student-run advertising and PR agency, is celebrating the end of its first semester housed in the Hubbard School. Previously, the agency was managed out of the College of Liberal Arts and the Office of Institutional Advancement. The agency has committed to a restructure of the organization, which includes full cross-functional collaboration between creative, account management, planning, media and production. Backpack is providing new experiences for aspiring ad/PR professionals with strong direction from an active Board of Directors who continue to support and guide projects. New and continuing Backpack clients include Serve Minnesota, the M.A. Strategic Communication program, First Nations Repatriation Institute, University Relations and Green Key Digital. If you are interested in learning more about Backpack, please visit backpackumn.com.

It was a productive fall for the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) team as they started work on this year’s project in late September. A group of more than 25 students has been meeting in person every Tuesday night to work on Oculus Quest 2 from Meta/Facebook. The team is being led by co-presidents MAYLEE MOORE and ALEXANDER NEALE and project manager RORY USKATVICH. The team has completed more than 1,600 surveys and conducted more than 40 one-on-one interviews for the research portion of the project. A former NSAC and Hubbard School alum Brenna Smithson, who is a Director of Brand Planning at Carmichael Lynch, gave the team great information on how to craft creative strategies. This spring, the team is working on the creative and media parts of the plan. The final book is due in late March and the team will compete in the District 8 championship in April.

Members of the NSAC team attended the British Arrow Awards on opening night at the Walker Art Center on Dec. 3.