This past Friday, we gathered together to honor the outstanding accomplishments of our seniors, graduate students, faculty, and staff at the 2025 Senior Luncheon and Awards Ceremony.
2025 Student Award Winners
We’re so proud to celebrate these students who exemplified excellence in their fields and made a lasting impact on the TAI community:
Outstanding TAI Senior Award – Sydney Strollo
Outstanding Creative Student Award – Ethan Jones
Outstanding DMS Student Award – Shivani Kosuri
Outstanding SBM Student Award – Boxiong Cao
Outstanding Graduate Student Award – Liby Navarro
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award – Morgan Heinig
TAI Team Player Award – Brady Bagwell
TAI Leadership Award – Emma Clarke
TAI Optimizer Award – Spencer Hogan
TAI Anchor Award – Athena Mamatas
TAI Social Impact Award – Ross Yenerich
TAI Resilience Award – Emma Georghakis
Face of TAI Award – Shivani Kosuri
Faculty & Staff Award Winners
We also honored the faculty and staff who go above and beyond to support and inspire our students every day:
Scholar of the Year – Sidharth Muralidharan
Student Support Super Star – Andrew Elliott
Student Support Super Star – Tami Fowler
Service Exemplar Award – Alice Kendrick
Service Exemplar Award – Carrie La Ferle
Marketing Assistant Award – Isabella Cox
Adjunct Professor Award – Maddy Kulkarni
Professor Inspiring Excellence – Gordon Law
We’re so grateful to everyone who made this event possible and to all who continue to shape the TAI experience into something truly special.
Here’s to the Class of 2025—we can’t wait to see what you do next!
On April 2nd, the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom transformed into a gallery of innovative design and storytelling for SMU’s annual Portfolio Night—an event that spotlights the best creative work produced by Advertising majors in the Creative specialization. From 6 to 9 p.m., students, faculty, alumni, and over 60 advertising professionals from over two dozen companies across the country gathered to celebrate.
Portfolio Night offers students the unique opportunity to exhibit their portfolios to industry leaders and receive invaluable feedback. The event featured work from two cohorts: Concepting students—those in their first semester of creative coursework—and Portfolio students, who are in their second or third year and preparing to graduate this May. The exhibition showcased a range of design, copywriting, video, and campaign work.
View the Companies Who Participated in Judging the Show and Portfolio Reviews
3Headed Monster
Beautiful Beast
Cheil
Commerce House
Eisenberg & Associates
Firehouse
Golin
Hothouse (Houston)
Infinite Agency
Johnson & Sekin
Keurig Dr Pepper
LERMA/
Moroch
PMG
Saatchi & Saatchi
TPN
TRG
Team One
Tracy-Locke
Vitro (San Diego)
From hauntingly gritty metaphors on social media addiction to mouthwatering food copy, the evening highlighted the talent and passion of SMU’s student creatives. Professionals were engaged directly with students during the review sessions—offering critiques, encouragement, and even potential career connections.
“I couldn’t be any prouder of these students and the campaigns they got into Portfolio Night. We’ve built something really special here in the Temerlin creative program. Our students are producing work at the highest level, and they deserve all attention they’re getting for it.”
— Mark Allen, Creative Program Director
To recognize their outstanding work, Stan Richards Professor in Creative Advertising Willie Baronet and Creative Program Director Mark Allen presented awards across several categories:
Click to View Awards
Best of Show
Center for Humane Technology “Made to Be Addictive” by Jordan Naivar
In addition to these, Judges’ Choice Awards were also given, including distinctions such as “Many Votes Across Multiple Categories” and “Best Logo/Packaging.”
These honors not only celebrated individual excellence but also reflected the collaborative spirit and passion within SMU’s creative advertising program. It’s clear that SMU’s creative advertising students are not only ready for the industry—they’re ready to shape it.
“Don’t bet against ANY of our students saving the world. I’m so proud of all of them!”
— Willie Baronet, Stan Richards Professor in Creative Advertising
