Service Learning Awards

The Department of Communication is committed to making sure students are engaged in the community and know the importance of making a difference on campus and off.
Two women shaking hands

We Enhance Our Education

Students in our classes take an active role, partnering with local businesses and non-profit organizations on a variety of projects. Our faculty has worked diligently to establish relationships with many municipal and corporate leaders, allowing our students to gain a "hands on" approach to their education. The students not only gain invaluable experience networking with industry professionals, they learn what it means to give back.

WE WIN Awards

Advertising

UTA Advertising Lecturer Roby McEuen won multiple awards at Fort Worth's American Advertising Awards. Kisabeth Furniture and Robeegraffix captured Best of Show, two Gold awards, two Silver awards, and one Bronze award for the La Habana Launch for Kisabeth Furniture Company. UTA Alumni and past AAF President, Bethanne Glover, was also served as the Special Projects Coordinator for the award-winning Kisabeth team.

Advertising

Advertising student Hilda Carmona recently brought home a very competitive $2,500 scholarship from Women in Media during their recent series of DFW student tours.

Broadcasting

Corporate Video (BCMN 4322)and Multimedia Production (BCMN 2370): we had 5 finalists in the Texas Central Bullet Train Video Competition and one winner, Casey Moore. Casey also won an award from AAF Dallas Addy Awards for his animation work on the bullet train competition.

Broadcasting

UTA News en Español was the recipient of the 2017 National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) Lone Star college student production award for Proyecto U. It started the Hispanic Media Initiative (HMI),a program in our Department focusing on the advancement of Hispanic media education, journalism, and research.

Broadcasting

UTA Radio received two first-place awards plus several seconds and HM’s in various contests including College Broadcasters Inc., College Media Association and South Central Broadcasting Society.

Broadcasting

Four UTA Radio staffers won scholarships to attend the NAB Radio Show in Austin last September. They were able to network with industry professionals and get feedback on the work they have done so far.

Journalism

Two members of SPJ were awarded scholarships as news interns for the national SPJ/NAHJ convention in September 2017.

PRSSA

7 students represent UTA at the PRSSA Southwest Regional Conference at Texas State in February. The UTA student chapter won the award for the group having the most fun at the conference -- our students proactively socialized and networked with all the other schools!

WE DO Service Learning

The Department of Communication has been a pioneer in Service Learning even before it became a buzzword in academia. We are a "Community That Cares", taking seriously one of the core values of UTA.

Advertising

UTA's student chapter of the American Advertising Federation is in preparations to send a team to compete in the National Student Advertising Competition taking place in Corpus Christi this April.

Advertising

The advertising capstone course is currently working on an advertising campaign for national client American Petroleum Institute. Last semester, students developed advertising proposals for their local partner, the City of Arlington Water Department.

Broadcasting

UTA News en Español started the Hispanic Media Exchange (HME), a Spanish-language television network where American and Latin American universities share television news content.

Broadcasting

2017 was the fifth year for the department’s partnership with the Cotton Bowl. Seven UTA Comm students worked with game officials to produce video content for the web and social media.

Broadcasting

Two UTA Radio Sports staffers were able to travel to New Orleans to cover Maverick basketball for the Sun Belt Tournament.

Communication Studies

Moriah Mason presented on “Predictability bias, uncertainty, and mental health communication” at the CoLA Spotlight on Students event in late March.

Communication Studies

Three Communication students, two undergraduate and one graduate, presented research at the College's Spotlight event. The undergraduates were Moriah Mason and Esteban Sanchez. The graduate student was Zedan Xu.

Communication Technology

Students in CTEC 4321 Digital Communication Management class create prototype Web applications for local businesses and organizations. In Fall 2018, Tobias Lasco's project was adopted by the client, Cornerstone Coffee which is a nonprofit coffee shop owned and operated by Grace Community Church here in Arlington. This Web application allows its users to redeem their free coffee offers with their cell phones and helps Cornerstone Coffee manage user accounts and recordkeeping. This application has been used more than a thousand times by its users this spring.

Journalism

SPJ students have held a Google News lab event, which provided training on Google tools applicable for students, faculty and the public to use in all fields of study and work; they will present an open discussion about covering/dealing with sexual assault issues next month.

Public Relations

Students in the PR Case Studies class developed Strategic Marketing Plans to help increase charitable revenue generated by DFW Restaurant Week, benefiting two local nonprofits: Lena Pope and the North Texas Food Bank.

Public Relations

Students in PR Methods developed media materials and social media content on behalf of The Mental Health Connection, a coalition of nonprofits, social service agencies and other organizations that work to improve the system of mental health care delivery in North Texas.

Public Relations

Waed Alhayek (current student) is producing/organizing the March for Our Lives in Dallas. This is a sister march in support of the movement (and national march in Washington D.C.) created by the high school students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

Public Relations

Elizabeth Olivarez (current student) is interning for Kim Olson, the Democratic candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner. Andrea Javier Gonzalez (current student) recently participated in a lobbying trip to Washington D.C., where she met with representatives from Ted Cruz and Kay Granger's staff regarding a permanent solution for DACA recipients.

Public Relations

Alumna Hillary Fluster has been hired as an Event Account Specialist at The Trade Group. They're a full-service event marketing and exhibit management company that puts together live, interactive events for clients in the video gaming industry.

Public Relations

Alumna Sam Cook was published in the Credit Union Journal.

Public Relations

Dr. Christie’s senior-level PR campaigns class is working with UTA Veteran Services to develop a PR/Marketing Campaign to support UTA Student veterans. The class has already conducted focus groups, survey research and engagement events to identify needs and communication preferences of veterans. A major goal is to increase awareness and understanding of the many university services available to this important student group.

Public Relations

The chapter tripled its membership in Fall 2017 adding 26 new students! The growth has largely been due to strong student leadership by the officers, consistently securing professionals coming to speak and more promotion of meetings. The chapter is starting a fundraising campaign to help pay for students to attend the National PRSSA Conference in October in Austin.