It’s time to celebrate another wonderful year of student and faculty accomplishments. We’ve recognized the achievements that make the Temerlin Advertising Institute an award-winning institute at SMU, and we could not be more proud of our talented students and faculty.
Below are all the industry and special awards earned by our students and faculty during the 2017-2018 academic year.
Industry and Special Awards
Industry Recognition
AAF’s Most Promising Multicultural Student – Jennifer Nelson and Eric Sedeño
AAF American Advertising Awards (ADDYs) – Samantha Butz, Lucas Crespo, Tiffany Giraudon, Jolie Guz, Madeline Khare, Grace LaMontagne, Grey McDermid, Kirsty McLauchlan, Caroline Moss, Jennifer Nelson, Helen Rieger, Eric Sedeño, Matthieu Smyth.
AAF Stickell Internship – Austin Inglett and Dalya Romaner.
AFF 10th District Scholarship: Alissa Llort and Avery Lewis
Advertising Education Foundation MADE Internship: Eric Sedeño
Alliance for Women in Media (AWM) Dallas Irene Runnels-Paula McStay Scholarship – Alissa Llort
DFW Interactive Marketing Association Scholarship – Hannah Tymochko
DSVC National Show Best Print Advertising Campaign, Best Copy & Judge’s Choice – Tiffany Giraudon, Laura Walsh and Caroline Moss.
National Student Advertising Competition, SMU-TAI’s Ad Team: Third Place and Special Judges Award for Best Market Segmentation
Student Organizations
SMU Ad Club Officers
Joanna Fennessy
President
Sara Jane Stephens
and Alex Mackillop
Co-Membership Chairs
Lex Pedraza
Treasurer
Peyton Turbeville
Event Planning Chair
Eric Sedeño
Communications
National Student Advertising Competition | Ad Team –
Hayley Banas, Myla Borden, Mary Charles Byers, Amy Cooley, Rita de Obarrio, Harrison Fiveash, Anne-Marie Geisler, Alissa Llort, Alex Mackillop, London Mercer, Shelby Pointer, Juan Reyes, Sara Jane Stephens, Sara Ann Whiteley and Frank Zhang.
SMU Mortar Board Top 10 Sophomore – Rachel Kainer and Jolie Guz
Institute Awards
The Best Students. The Best Faculty. The Best Advertising
TAI STUDENT AWARDS:
TAI Anchor Award – Given to a student(s) who consistently “pulls more than his/her weight” in bringing projects to fruition: Matthieu Smyth.
TAI Donald John Carty Leadership Award –Given to a student(s) in recognition of leadership in the classroom, the Institute and beyond: Cheyenne Tilford.
Face of TAI Award – Given to a student(s) who represents the Institute within Meadows, SMU and/or the advertising industry: Joanna Fennessy
TAI Optimizer Award – Given to a student(s) who demonstrates a desire and aptitude to make work better through superior work strategies and iteration: Alissa Llort and Eric Sedeño.
TAI Outstanding Graduate Student – Given to a student(s) who best represents the academic and professional pursuit of the field: Coral Pisek.
TAI Resilience Award – Given to a student(s) who deals effectively with project setbacks while maintaining a positive attitude and demonstrating a resolve to produce outstanding work: Kirsty McLauchlan
TAI Social Impact Award –Given to a student(s) who exemplifies aspects of social responsibility in their advertising work and beyond: Anna Proctor.
TAI Service Award – Given to a student(s) who renders substantial service to the campus at large as well as in the greater community: Rita de Obarrio
TAI Team Player Award –Given to a student(s) in recognition of contributions to team projects and activities: Sara Jane Stephens and Jolie Guz.
TAI Outstanding Academic Achievement in Creative – Tiffany Giraudon.
TAI Outstand Academic Achievement in Digital – Rachel Kainer.
TAI Outstanding Academic Achievement in Strategic Brand Management – Cheyenne Tilford.
TAI Student Marshal at Graduation – Caroline Moss.
TAI Undergraduate Reader at Graduation – Alex Mackillop
TAI Graduate Reader – Deja Sanders.
TAI FACULTY AWARDS
Scholar of the Year – Dr. Hye Jin Yoon
Service Exemplar – Professor Mark Allen
Teaching Innovator – Professor Cheryl Mendenhall
TAI Research Fellows – Dr. Sidharth Muralidharan and Dr. Carrie La Ferle
Professor Inspiring Excellence –
Student Support Superstars – Dr. Alice Kendrick, Professor Mark Allen, and Professor Willie Baronet
TAI Professor Willie Baronet (right) with TAI class of 2016 alums.
Thursday May 18, many TAI students attended an Alumni Gathering event in New York City as part of MayTerm courses in New York. They got to mix and mingle with many SMU and TAI graduates from many different classes. These alumni are now thriving in their careers in New York City and took the opportunity to connect with and talk to current students.
Many TAI students have aspirations of working in New York City after they graduate, so getting to meet with alums who were in there shoes merely a few years ago was very motivational for them.
“The event was such a great way to network with the NYC TAI advertising community,” TAI student Joanna Fennessy said. “Especially as a rising senior wanting to work in advertising in the city post graduation, I found the event extremely useful and inspiring. I was able to talk to all kinds of alums working in agencies, with brands, and for consultancies. It broadened my knowledge of the industry and my network within in a city other than Dallas for a change!”
TAI students Caroline Moss (’18), Morgan Hoff (’17), and Helen Rieger (’17).
Many TAI students on the Creative track appreciated the chance to meet former TAI Creative students and listen to their advice.
“The networking event was an incredible opportunity for the Creative track students,” TAI student Jolie Guz said. “It was crazy to meet other creatives who were in our shoes on the same trip a year ago, but are now working for agencies like Digitas and Wieden+Kennedy. I was not only able to meet SMU alumni in the New York area on this trip, but I also had the chance to get closer with a lot of my friends in the creative track as well.”
All the students on the New York trip appreciated the occasion to bond with fellow students and to learn more about advertising opportunities in New York.
Professor Willie Baronet (right) with current TAI students Kirsty McLauchlan, Jolie Guz, Lucas Crespo, and Matthew Smyth.
“The New York trip gave me key insights to not only what some of the top agencies in the industry are about, but helped better my understanding of what kind of agency I want to work for,” TAI student Samantha Shearson said. “I was so impressed with this trip and all of the SMU alums’ generosity on taking time out of their days to make this trip special for us. This trip exceeded all my expectations and will inspire me to work harder on my book.”
Recent TAI graduate Marissa Lopez (’16) is now working as a Junior Art Director at BBDO in New York. Lopez has quite an impressive resume, participating in both the NSAC Ad Team and AAF’s Most Promising Multicultural Student (MPMS) program along with a variety of internships during her undergraduate career. Every unique experience that she had in college prepared her for the career she has now.
Marissa Lopez (’16)
Lopez took advantage of all the internship opportunities she could. She had three advertising internships during her college career, at both large and small advertising agencies and directly for a brand. Working for such different companies allowed Lopez to get an idea of her ideal workplace.
“The summer before my Senior year was when I had my first advertising agency experience,” Lopez said. “I was an art director intern at Dieste, a multicultural advertising agency located in Dallas. I had the opportunity to work on Cricket Wireless, LaLa Yogurt, and AT&T accounts. When I returned to school in the fall I started an internship at Southwest Airlines as a digital marketing and design intern. I took this opportunity because I was interested in seeing the difference between advertising at an agency versus in-house. At Southwest I got to focus on how print translates into the digital sphere and website design. In the Spring of my senior year I worked at a smaller, boutique agency called Willow St. located in Deep Ellum. It was a great experience and I learned so much. The perk of a small agency at an intern level is the one-on-one time you get with industry professionals. During my time at Willow St. I designed packaging, a website and was constantly producing social media content for various brands. I think working at a smaller agency while still in college helped me to really focus in on my graphic design skills.”
All of these internship opportunities taught her some very important lessons that helped prepare her for her job today. While each taught her different skills and lessons, she took away several pieces of advice that can be applied to all internship experiences.
“Some of the most important things my internships taught me were how important work environment/company culture is, time management, and how to successfully handle direction and criticism,” Lopez said. “Once you set foot in the advertising industry you’ll be quick to notice that no one is going to hold your hand. It’s sink or swim, and you have to self-motivate and even fake it till you make it at times. The sooner you can get exposed to that, the better.”
Along with internships, Lopez had the opportunity to be a member of SMU’s NSAC Ad Team. She served as both a creative and a presenter on the team, giving her first hand experience in campaign design and pitching a campaign.
“My experience on the NSAC Ad Team was one of the most rewarding,” Lopez said. “At the end of the day, you have to be able to work with people regardless of what you do or where you’re working. Being able to be a ‘team-player’ is so cliché but it’s the truth. You want people to want to work with you. It’s how you get your hands on the best accounts and work. Ad Team is the closest experience you get to what working on a campaign at a professional level is like, and I’m so lucky to have gotten that exposure. I walked away with so much more confidence as a presenter, and also with a greater understanding of how important it is to put egos aside, be flexible and successfully work with others.”
Once starting her job at BBDO, Lopez quickly learned that while the campaigns she worked on in school have the same elements as campaigns at work, they also differ in many ways.
“In college when you’re working on campaigns for class or Ad Team, you have more creative freedom than you probably ever will again,” Lopez said. “Take advantage of that. The campaigns I’ve worked on at BBDO have a lot in common to Ad Team; there’s a brief, a target, a budget, a team you work with, and some type of deliverables. The biggest difference is the turnaround is not a few months, but instead a week, maybe if you’re lucky two.”
Lopez at MPMS recognition.
While all of the previous experiences helped her gain skills and lessons for working at an advertising agency, Lopez attributes her current job to AAF’s Most Promising Multicultural Student program.
“MPMS is what got my foot in the door at BBDO,” Lopez said. “It was an extremely rewarding experience, and I was very honored to be given the award. It was so refreshing to see how diversity plays a role in the industry and how it is becoming such a large part of it. I was very fortunate to meet a BBDO recruiter that saw my potential at the awards program. Exposure and networking is so crucial. Take advantage of every opportunity, contest, award show etc. You never know who you will meet.”
After graduation, Lopez moved to New York to start her internship with BBDO. Soon after, she knew that she wanted to work there full-time, so she worked extremely hard to prove that she deserved the position.
Lopez inside the BBDO office in New York.
“The internship was a wonderful experience, and I fell in love with the BBDO company culture and everyone I was working with,” Lopez said. “All of the creatives and the creative work I was surrounded by was extremely inspiring and I knew right away that I wanted to stay past summer and get hired on full-time. I did anything and everything over the course of the summer to prove that I deserved to stay. I worked late hours, weekends, and said ‘yes’ to every opportunity. After 5 months of interning, I was offered a full-time position as a Junior Art Director on the PepsiCo account and have been hard at work ever since.”
Lopez has used the skills she learned in her advertising and graphic design courses at SMU to achieve the success she has today.
“So much of what I learned in my advertising classes at SMU have translated and helped me in my job now,” Lopez said. “Being able to share and talk about your work is probably the most important one. You have to be able to believe in your ideas and get others to as well. At BBDO there are many people your work has to go through before it actually reaches the client, so you’ve got to be able to pitch and talk about it with confidence. All of the Graphic Design and Portfolio classes that required me to present and create presentations to show my work have all helped me so much today.”
Throughout her experiences, Lopez learned the importance of networking and being able to set yourself apart from others. She hopes that her advice can help current students achieve their goals as well.
“Network and meet as many people in the industry as you can,” Lopez said. “Most people are willing to help and share advice. Also, find a strength that sets you apart from others. It doesn’t even have to be a skill; maybe it’s a personality trait. Everyone is talented and creative, but find that passion or trait that’s unique to you and showcase it in your work, portfolio, or resume. People like to see passion. Also, just be nice. Working hard and being kind and genuine will actually get you places!”
TAI Alum (’11) Jenny Lanier has had a very successful career since her graduation from SMU. In her three years as an Art Director at Moroch, Lanier accomplished a lot, working with clients like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Mattress Giant. Recently, Lanier was featured in the 2016 Communications Arts Advertising Annual.
“I was featured in the Communications Arts Advertising Annual for a billboard for McDonald’s,” Lanier said. “The assignment was to push $1 beverages in markets during the summer. Our client wanted something more special. My team and I thought it would be interesting to have a temperature gauge on the billboard to say that each degree of heat is just another reason to grab a drink at McDonald’s.”
One shot of the McDonald’s billboard featured in the Communication Arts Advertising Annual. Photo credit: CA Advertising Annual
To be featured in the Communications Arts Advertising Annual is a very special honor for former advertising students. TAI Creative Advertising Professor Mark Allen, also Lanier’s former professor, refers to it as “the golden ring” for creatives.
“It’s special [to me] because it was a publication I frequently referred to as a student,” Lanier said. “CA Annuals were required books for all of our advertising classes. I remember we would go through and flag the campaigns that resonated with us – ones that we wish we had thought of. To think a student might do that with the project I worked on makes me smile.”
This year, Lanier and her team at Moroch won a gold ADDY in the OOH & Ambient category for their McDonald’s “Refresh” campaign. Lanier also won a silver ADDY in 2014 for an Interactive Web Banner for McDonald’s called “Up and At ‘Em.”
“Everyone loves to be told ‘good job,’ especially when you work really hard,” Lanier said. “These awards are just a little pat on the back that let you know you’re on the right track. I was always proud of my peers for getting published or winning awards. It feels good to experience those honors firsthand.”
Jenny Lanier (’11)
Lanier attributes a lot of her career success to her time in the creative department at TAI, from the student and faculty connections she made to the practical skills she carried into her career.
“I felt incredibly lucky to be under the tutelage of two amazing professors in the creative department: Mark Allen and Glenn Griffin,” Lanier said. “To say they changed my life is an understatement. When I was in the program, they inspired all of us to want to be great while empowering us to get there ourselves. More practically speaking, the rigor of the program helped prepare me to meet deadlines and practice professionalism with my clients. I also met many talented students who have remained very close friends. Having a tight network of alums is invaluable.”
Currently, Lanier is pursuing her Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. She’s recently accepted an offer to be a Software Designer at IBM in Austin, which she will be starting next summer.
“It’s an exciting time to work in technology,” Lanier said. “I’m eager for all of the opportunities that await me at IBM. My goals for my career have always been to keep learning, work hard, and be proud of myself at the end of each day. I do see myself teaching somewhere down the line. I remember SMU and SCAD professors who made a huge impact on my life. Having a positive influence on other potential students would be extremely gratifying.”
Throughout her undergraduate, graduate, and career experiences, Lanier has learned valuable lessons that she hopes to impart on people who are in the same position she was once in.
“To the creative track students: take advantage of being in Professor Allen’s class,” Lanier said. “It is rare to find someone who not only cares about your academic development, but also cares about you as an individual. Professor Allen is brilliant and I felt like I became smarter just by breathing the same air as he did! So listen to him. To everyone [all students]: Make good connections with both your classmates and professors. Perform in ways that make people want to be on your team. I think you can get a lot of opportunities by being a kind, honest, and hardworking person. Employers will invest in your education and training if they want to work with you.”
For anyone, student or not, looking for a job or trying to establish a name for themselves, Lanier suggests using social media to help build your personal brand.
“On a more tangible level, use your social media presence as a way to show your personality,” Lanier said. “People will comb the depths of the Internet to look you up, so make sure what you say reflects you accurately. If you love photography, showcase your talents on Instagram. If you fancy yourself a comedian, fill your Twitter with shareable one-liners. There are a lot of ways you can convey your personality online, so take advantage of what’s most appropriate for you. An interviewer once brought up one of my Tweets in a meeting because he thought it was really funny. It sounds silly, but it isn’t. Take your personal brand seriously because you always have an audience.”
On Monday, September 12, first-year TAI Creative Advertising students in Professor Mark Allen’s Concepting class were given an opportunity that many students will never get – to show their work to multiple industry professionals and get feedback from people who are currently working in the field.
Professor Allen calls it “Speed-Dating Critique.” Each professional is stationed at a separate table to speak one-on-one with the students, who will each have a stack of 50-60 concept sketches loosely organized by similar concepts and themes. Students spend roughly ten minutes with at least three to four different professionals throughout the class period, receiving feedback on which of their ideas are most promising.
Professor Allen’s Concepting class during “Speed-Dating Critique.”
“I do this event twice every semester,” Professor Allen said. “But this time the response from the local advertising community has been overwhelming—we typically have 4-5 professionals volunteer to review work, but this time I [had] 14-16!”
Some of the professionals who participated in the critique include: Steve Grimes, Creative Director (CD) at The Richards Group; Shelby Tamura, Art Director (AD) at The Richards Group; Dr. Ben Wyeth, Copywriter at The Richards Group and SMU Adjunct Professor; Randall Kenworthy, Freelance Copywriter; Greg Hunter, Group Creative Director (GCD) and Principal at Firehouse; Julie Bowman, Senior CD at Slingshot; Jose Benitez, Senior Copywriter at Dieste; Arturo Lee, AD at Dieste; Jason Shipp, GCD at Moroch and SMU Adjunct Professor; Matt Villanueva, Associate Creative Director at Moroch; and Matt Lindner, Copywriter at Moroch.
“I gained some priceless advice after talking with industry professionals during Concepting,” sophomore TAI student Jolie Guz said. “I still cannot believe that in my third week in the Creative program, we were able to put our work in front of art directors and copywriters from The Richards Group, Moroch and more. I am looking forward to being able to meet more and more Dallas area creatives during my time in Temerlin!”
Several of these advertising professionals are alums of TAI, having attended SMU for their undergraduate and/or graduate degrees. Having successful professionals visit an undergraduate class to provide input on student work is an incredible experience. However, having successful professionals who were once in your exact same position (in the same program at the same school) is an invaluable experience, providing students with even more motivation and confidence to be successful in their careers after graduation.
The Temerlin Advertising Institute offers students the opportunity to earn a BA in Advertising while specializing their knowledge in one of three key industry areas: Creative, Digital Media Strategy, and Strategic Brand Management. The major is designed to provide students with the optimal blend of theory and practice. Learn more about the major and specializations here.
Jordan Kretchmer (’06) Photo Credit: Branding Magazine
In July of 2009, TAI Alum Jordan Kretchmer (’06) founded Livefyre, a content marketing and engagement platform. In the past seven years Livefyre has grown tremendously, acquiring customers like CNN, Coca-Cola, Major League Baseball, and Cisco. Due to their growing success, Livefyre caught the eye of Adobe, who has since acquired and integrated it into their Adobe Experience Manager.
In his time at SMU, Kretchmer was a member of Praxis, SMU’s award-winning Ad Team, for two consecutive years. He served as Vice President and Creative Director and was a presenter for the Visit Florida campaign, which won the 2004 National Championship in the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition.
Kretchmer had a successful career in advertising before founding his company. He worked as an Art Director at Tribal DDB, VP Associate Creative Director at Mullen, Associate Creative Director at Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, and Vice President Brand at Current TV. He is also currently on the Board of Directors at Mashable and is a Venture Partner at Draft Ventures and will continue his work as CEO of Livefyre, while also working with Adobe.
After being acquired by Adobe in May, Livefyre became a product available within the Adobe Experience Manager, as well as remaining a stand-alone service outside of Adobe. According to Adobe, “[Livefyre is] an all-new capability of Adobe Experience Manager that lets you tap into everything shared on the web to create a constant flow of fresh and high-quality content on your own sites.”
Photo Credit: Ken Yeung/VentureBeat
The purpose of Livefyre is to allow companies access to user-created content in one aggregated location. Originally Livefyre was created as a commenting platform, where companies can gather all the comments being posted online about their product, service or event, in one place. Many of the major news sources, including Fox News and CNN, use this aspect of Livefyre to display comments during live events, like political debates.
In an interview with Branding magazine, Kretchmer explained “when you integrate user-generated content with professionally-created content you get to tell your story alongside all of your best fans.” Livefyre was created to be this solution for brands, and now the company that Kretchmer created from scratch seven years ago is providing that solution to some of the biggest brand names on one of the biggest platforms available, Adobe.
Jena Jessen (’12) had a long-time dream realized when she was hired as a designer for the Dallas Mavericks in June. In her position, Jessen is responsible for creating graphics, collateral, presentations, infographics and logos for the team. With an average home game attendance of 20,000, and more than 65 million fans internationally, designing for the Mavericks is no small job.
TAI alumna, Jena Jessen (’12), designs infographics, logos and other collateral for the Dallas Mavericks.
Jessen graduated from SMU’s Temerlin Advertising Institute (TAI) with a BA in Advertising in December 2012. During her time in TAI’s creative advertising program, she learned several valuable lessons that she has carried with her during her career:
Keep pushing your work further until it is great
Condition your craft
Have a great portfolio site
Under the leadership of the TAI creative faculty, Jessen learned how to “push through the junk until [she] landed at a great idea.” She also learned that conditioning and self-discipline are critical to being successful in the industry. Jessen notes that conditioning is different from motivation, which is fleeting. Like the athletes she now designs for, Jessen conditions her craft through both work and freelance projects to make sure she is staying engaged in the discipline and growing as a professional. Having a great portfolio hosting platform to showcase work is helpful as well. Jessen recommends Cargo Collective, which she was introduced to at TAI.
Jessen’s journey to Victory Park has included stops at Dallas agencies such as MEplusYOU, where she interned, and Speck Communications, where she served as a full time Art Director. She credits her time with these agencies, as well as the knowledge and skills she learned at the Temerlin Advertising Institute, to her landing the position with the Mavericks.
Jessen also serves as the Creative Chair for Ad2Dallas, an affiliate of AAF Dallas, whose mission is to strengthen the skills and connections of Dallas advertising, marketing and public relations professionals age 32 years and younger. For more information on Ad2Dallas, including upcoming events, visit: http://aafdallas.org/ad2dallas/.
Temerlin Advertising Institute alumna Karissa Jobman (’13) is combining her advertising acumen and love of travel through Bucket, a startup aimed to boost tourism activities in Quito, Ecuador and other developing cities. About Bucket
“Bucket started out of a vision to share the culture of Latin America with the world by making tourism more accessible to international markets” says Jobman. This vision came to her and fellow co-founder, Daniel Pino, through a serendipitous meeting while the two were working for Southwest Airlines in Dallas, Texas. In October 2014, their vision became a reality when Quito’s Tourism Bureau selected Bucket as a recipient of their tourism innovation competition.
Bucket’s purpose is to promote tourism in developing cities through partnerships with the top attractions in each city, providing technologically accessible, discounted, convenient ways to travel the world. Bucket combines entrance tickets to the top attractions in each partner city, offering one Bucket Pass with full access to each attraction at a discounted price. Travelers can purchase the pass online or by mobile device. The Bucket app also features attraction information and trips.
Bucket launches today, July 23, in Quito, Ecuador. Tickets go on sale August 10.
About Jobman Karissa Jobman came to SMU from Omaha, Nebraska to study advertising at the Temerlin Advertising Institute. She first visited South America through the Alternative Breaks program to Ecuador, then spent a semester of her junior year studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Jobman graduated from SMU with a BA in Advertising in December 2013. After graduation she interned with Southwest Airlines in the Community Affairs and Grassroots department, where she met her Bucket co-founder. As the CPO of Bucket, Jobman uses her advertising expertise to create an enhanced digital experience, as well as manage the brand and product development of the company.
What do you do when a no kill Animal Shelter in DFW turns to you increase exposure for the many animals looking for a loving home? If you’re Arturo Lee (MA ’14) and the team at Dieste, you create an award-winning campaign!
About the Campaign Adoptable Trends is a proactive campaign for Dallas Pets Alive!, a no kill shelter servicing the DFW area. The talented team at Dieste came to the conclusion that the main reason most of these dogs don’t get adopted is due to their lack of exposure online. If people could only look at their adorable faces for even a second they might be more inclined to adopt. By redirecting the online traffic that daily trends get, Dieste was able to shine a spotlight on dogs that would otherwise stay homeless. How did they do this? By simply renaming the dogs after new trends and tagging them around social media. Dieste also created some funny films in order to push the campaign even further. This idea was engineered by Jose Benitez, Sr. Copywriter; Francisco Arranz, Sr. Art Director; and TAI MA Alumnus Arturo Lee, Jr. Art Director.
Accolades
The campaign has done well at many festivals, and has won such merits as 2 shortlists at The Wave, 2 Silvers at the USH Idea Awards, 2 Silver SOL Awards, and most recently 3 shortlists at Cannes, 1 Bronze Lion in Cyber for Best Use of Social Data & Insight, and a Silver Lion in Media for Best Use of Digital Content.
About Arturo Lee
Arturo Lee was born in Mexico City and moved to Houston, Texas at the age of 8. He attended Texas A&M University where he received a Bachelor’s in Business Administration in Marketing. From there, Arturo attended the Temerlin Advertising Institute at Southern Methodist University where he received his Master’s Degree in Advertising. Upon graduation he began working for Dieste, first as an intern and then as a Junior Art Director. You can follow Arturo on Twitter @arturolee4.
On June 18th, I had the incredibly opportunity to participate in the 10th Annual Home Team Build here at The Richards Group. As a recent graduate of the Temerlin Advertising Institute at SMU, I was excited about joining the working world, but was nervous about that whole “work/life balance” everyone kept talking about. Community service has been an ongoing theme and hobby in my life, and I wasn’t sure where that would fit into a busy, new schedule. But when I joined The Home Depot account at TRG, I was thrilled to learn that I was joining a team of people who were equally passionate about giving back.
Years ago, The Home Depot committed to an annual day of service to help those in need. In response, the team of people working on The Home Depot account here at The Richards Group decided to make the same commitment. For ten years, the Home Team has raised money and fixed up the homes of local Dallas families in need of a helping hand. And this year, we took on two houses, instead of one.
I pulled up to work at 6:00 in the morning, and was greeted by my surprisingly enthusiastic-for-it-being-so-early coworkers. We got on the bus and headed to work. We ripped up carpets. We chipped off old paint. We installed brand new appliances. We got dirty, sunburnt, and wow are we sore. But none of that mattered when the homeowners walked through the door at the end of the day, because we realized the difference that our work had made.
My education at TAI showed me that this is an industry where there are unlimited opportunities to give back, you just have to have the courage to take them. And boy, am I glad I did.
About the Author
Erin Hedrick is a 2015 MA in Advertising graduate from the Temerlin Advertising Institute at SMU, with a BA in Film & Media Arts. She currently works as a Brand Manager for The Home Depot account at The Richards Group.
Jessen’s journey to Victory Park has included stops at Dallas agencies such as MEplusYOU, where she interned, and Speck Communications, where she served as a full time Art Director. She credits her time with these agencies, as well as the knowledge and skills she learned at the Temerlin Advertising Institute, to her landing the position with the Mavericks.
