School of Mass Communication Newsletter Fall 2009

School of Mass Communication Newsletter FALL 2009

Public relations students, professor shine with “Bling” By Michael Caruso, mass communication junior

Loyola’s Bateman public relations team won first place in the spring with their campaign “The Bling Starts Here,” marking the second straight year the School of Mass Communication has walked away from the national competition with top honors. The annual competition, organized by the Public Relations Student Society of America, asks teams from universities to The winning 2009 Bateman Team was comprised of tackle a full-scale public Heather Miranne, Janine Sheedy, adviser Cathy Rogers, relations campaign for Sarah Mackota, Ashley Sutton and Vicki Voelker. nonprofit organizations. This year, students worked with the Consumer Bankers Association to raise college awareness among public school students. Janine Sheedy, Heather Miranne, Sarah Mackota, Ashley Sutton and Vicki Voelker comprised the 2009 team. Their campaign focused on showing high school students the correlation between attending college and maximizing earning potential. The Loyola team used “The Bling Starts Here” to convey a message that dedication to school will pay off in tangible rewards. The group launched the campaign at inner-city schools in the New Orleans area, including Warren Easton, Cohen and St. Bernard Middle schools, talking with students, teachers, and parents about preparing for college. “We were really able to make them see how important a college education is, and we were able to show them how they can attain it,” team member and communication senior Heather Miranne said. “We helped students understand that their personal stories can make great scholarship essays and they shouldn’t be afraid to tell their story,” Miranne said.

The Loyola University Bateman Team has a history of high honors in this competition, having placed first nationally in 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005 and 2008, and second in 2001, 2004 and 2006. Public Relations Professor J. Cathy Rogers, Ph.D., supervises the public relations sequence and advises the Bateman competitors. “This competition charge was extremely timely for New Orleans as it experiences changes and improvements in the public school system. For the team to be a national finalist is great recognition for the work they did to inspire hope in a group of eighth and ninth graders,” Rogers said. “The fact that these students are national finalists pales in comparison to the children’s lives that they touched—some of whom actually said they had never given life after high school a thought until meeting this team.” For her work leading her students in this and other arenas, Rogers was lauded by the Public Relations Society of America’s New Orleans chapter at their annual fall banquet. She was awarded the Preeminent Plate Spinner award. “Our awards ceremony is an annual celebration of talent, research, strategic thinking, and creativity,” John Deveney, president of PRSA New Orleans, said. “We give awards to the very best public relations practitioners in our market for their exemplary work.” But the Plate Spinner Award is reserved for “an exemplary leader — a practitioner and leader who goes beyond their work and makes a difference,” he said. Deveney, who graduated from Loyola in 1988, especially praised Rogers for her continued success with Loyola’s Bateman Team. Team members were also honored by PRSA. They were given the Silver Anvil for their campaign, this time competing against seasoned professionals in the New Orleans area. Rogers’ record advising Bateman students is one to be coveted,” Deveney said. “It’s simply

See BLING, page 7