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
Student: Boxiong Cao After the first two great mandatory talks we attended on Saturday, March 8th, where sessions talked about how AI impacted advertising and how we can integrate AI to advertising to improve performance, and enhance storytelling. Me and Grant got to the event we were most excited about – The main sponsor of SXSW 2025 Rivian’s Off-Road Experience in downtown Austin, and it did not disappoint. The experience was set to demonstrate Rivian EV’s off-road ability as well as its raw power, torque and versatility. We quickly checked in, signed our waivers and got a briefing from the team before hopping into the R1T (Staff were super friendly). We got to experience the ride while a professional driver took us through some steep hills. We were welcomed by the luxury interior the car offered, and the driver wasted no time putting the truck to the test. When we hit the first steep incline, the car got up the hill effortlessly its 1500nM+ torque. The descent was equally impressive, where the car’s descent control allow the car to glide down smoothly without the driver touching the brake. Unlike gas-powered cars, there was no engine howl, just us saying wow inside the car. Right after the hill, we also tackled a 40-degree side incline, where the R1T effortlessly maintained stability(even though I was crouched in the middle seat), showcasing its independent air suspension system in action. Despite the extreme tilt, the vehicle remained composed, proving just how well it adapts to challenging terrain. Overall, it was a great experience to attend SXSW where I not only gained more insights to advertising, AI, and I also get to experience this beast in a off road setting, it was a true immersive experience that showcased Rivian is all about: Adventure, pushing boundaries and proving that EVs belong to the wild just as much as they do in a city sitting.
The Female Quotient Equity Lounge & Panels – SXSW Day 2
Paulina: One of my favorite parts of this weekend at SXSW was the Female Quotient’s Equity Lounge that launched on International Women’s Day and provided incredible panels and activations. One of my favorite Panels that we sat in on was the “Algorithm for all: AI as Co-creator”, in which the speakers talked about how AI can help in the development of products and brand growth through methods that we don’t always think about. One of the speakers mentioned how they have trained AI to have their desired consumer traits and voice with their own consumer research and data (videos, stories, etc.). They then use this AI to represent their consumer voice and can test with projects that are being developed. This was just one of my favorite panels that I got to sit in on, but I also really enjoyed all the activations they held at this event, which I felt were incredibly relevant to the brand and day. FQ collaborated with Ulta Beauty to hand out products and held a makeup and hair retouch booth. There was a Customize your own tote bag section and many other things that connected so well to the brand.
Kelsey: The FQ Lounge was absolutely one of my highlights of the weekend – with amazing pop-ups, speakers, and guest appearances, Paulina and I kept finding new things to do every time we visited. Every discussion session was incredibly interesting and insightful, ranging from AI integration to understanding needs of brand personas and messaging to how disrupt using AI. Additionally, with a coffee bar, books to take home, and a flower wall, there was a little bit of everything for everyone. NASA astronaut Cady Coleman was also in attendance, promoting her new book “Sharing Space”!
‘The Last of Us’ Cast on Season 2 Panel & Meeting Gabriel Luna – SXSW Day 2
Paulina: One of the highlights for me this weekend was being able to get into the panel with the cast of “The Last of Us”, where the cast and creators spoke on season 2 and premiered its trailer for the first time. As a fan of the show, this was a surreal moment for me, and I loved being able to see some of my favorite celebrities like Pedro Pascal (of course), Gabriel Luna, and Bella Ramsy. And the most star-stucking moment of all… running into and meeting Gabriel Luna after the panel!
Kelsey: Coming into SXSW, I was excited for many panels, but nothing compared to finding out that the cast and crew of The Last of Us season 2 would be in attendance a few days before traveling down to Austin. I love Pedro Pascal’s acting overall, especially in this series based on the beloved video game, and was thrilled to hear him and all of the cast discuss the highly-anticipated season. They premiered the brand new trailer at our panel, showing off to the world for the first time the incredible new season. Each member of the panel had super fun answers to all of the questions, with Gabriel Luna shouting out his hometown of Austin first thing. In a surprising turn of events, after the amazing panel, we ran into Gabriel Luna, not once, not twice, but three times as we bopped around to other activations!
Filming with Elmo & Cookie Monster for Sesame Street – SXSW Day 3
Kelsey: We accidentally stumbled upon the filming of social media segments focused around healthy relationships with screens, social media, and screen time for Sesame Street featuring Cookie Monster and Elmo (two characters we were hoping to see this weekend!) After getting in a short queue that was behind the filming area, we found out that we could be in a video, as we were the last group allowed to join the line! Elmo asked each of us one question about screens, with mine focusing on how to spread kindness online. Paulina then answered and we were able to get a picture with Elmo and then everything dispersed with the end of filming. I felt extremely lucky that we just so happened to be in the right place at the right time to meet the characters from one of my favorite shows growing up. It felt so rewarding that on pure luck we were able to stumble upon the “celebs” we were hoping to meet all weekend (a common theme overall).
Paulina: Another incredible moment for me happened at the very start of day 3, where we accidentally stumbled upon Sesame Street Filming content with Cookie Monster and Elmo. Immediately, Kelsey and I got in line and turned out to be the last ones that got to participate and film on that day. It was such a surreal moment for me that brought back so much nostalgia. Sesame Street was such a big part of my childhood and to be able to have had this incredible opportunity honestly brought me to tears.
‘From Clicks to Careers: Marketing & Branding to Recruit Gen Z’ Session – SXSW Day 3
Kelsey: Having the opportunity to hear from some of the women behind Handshake, Google, and Axios was absolutely amazing! Each woman had such interesting and valuable insights in regards to how Gen Z (our generation) is navigating early career fields, opportunities, and the job market and how different this generation is from those previous. Katherine Kelly (Chief Marketing Officer – Handshake) talked in depth about how the new generation is approaching searching for jobs, as well as how career goals and benefits for Gen Z have changed in comparison to others, focusing more on benefits having higher importance (pay, insurance) as opposed to the values of the company being applied to, something I found very interesting in a post-DEI world.
Paulina: One of my absolute favorite sessions of SXSW was being able to hear this panel talk about how companies are adapting their hiring processes to Gen Z and the trends they have witnessed with my generation. As a Gen Z who is about to graduate and enter the job market, it was so interesting to hear what the professionals on the talent acquisition side are thinking when it comes to the changing workforce. An important insight that they shared was on how my generation uses LinkedIn differently than other generations, but still remains incredibly important when it comes to building a personal brand.
Use this link to access all of our pictures and videos of our highlights above!
Student: Ali McKelvey I’ve always been fascinated by the accelerating changes in AI technology, so I made sure to attend a session at SXSW that would dive deep into this topic. I attended “The Auto-Evolving Business: AI’s Agentic Near Future” with Niel Redding, where I learned some eye-opening insights. One of the main ideas discussed was that AI is becoming an “invasive species,” and as a result, humans need to learn how to develop a symbiotic relationship with it. Redding emphasized that businesses and individuals who fail to embrace AI risk being left behind or even losing their jobs. This is where the mental model of AI evolution comes in, which progresses in five stages at an increasingly rapid pace. The session broke down each stage, beginning with Prompt (such as chatbots) and moving to Participate (where AI helps us complete tasks), then onto Delegate (where AI begins to take on more responsibilities), followed by Initiate (AI acting autonomously, like sending emails or enhancing visual experiences through smart glasses). The final stage, Symbiosis, is where businesses and AI evolve together, benefiting both the technology and the planet. This evolving relationship will reshape industries and daily life, and it’s clear that to stay competitive, we need to start building toward this symbiotic future. Another fun session I attended featured actor Ben Stiller and Apple’s Eddy Cue, where they discussed the hit Apple TV+ series Severance. As someone who recently finished Season 1, I was thrilled to hear them talk about the show, which has become one of my current obsessions. It was exciting to get an inside look at the creative process behind Severance, especially with exclusive clips from an unreleased episode that will air next week. What I found particularly interesting was hearing Ben and Eddy discuss the storytelling techniques used in Severance and how they integrate Apple products into the narrative. Their insights into the casting process and the evolution of the show added another layer of appreciation for the series. It was a fascinating session that not only gave a behind-the-scenes peek into the making of Severance but also highlighted the ways in which storytelling and technology come together in innovative ways.
Student: Ellie Pierce I had no idea what to expect before attending SXSW, but I am happy to report that I was beyond fulfilled with my experience. From the various activations to the many panels I attended, I felt like I learned so much from an advertising standpoint. My favorite panels were the marketing panel hosted by NBCU as well as the disruptors panel. Each of these panels had higher-ups in marketing / advertising speak that each gave such amazing advice regarding ways to stand out and make your mark in the industry. I took extensive notes and found everything very insightful as someone about to start their career in advertising. In addition to this I was so inspired as a young advertiser; I hope someday I can make an impact on the industry and be called upon to speak at something like SXSW. As for the activations – it was so fun getting new merch and trying new products I wouldn’t have been able to try otherwise. It was also a really interesting way to view how to creatively advertise your brand to people in person; there were so many cool collaborations and executions. The What-a-burger activation was such a creative way to put the brand out there. Furthermore, I loved the entire group who came for SXSW. I felt like I became closer with a lot of my peers in the major. I had so much fun hopping around activations and going to panels with the whole class. I felt like everyone had their own unique perspective and knowledge about everything going on at SXSW, and I was able to experience and learn more than I would’ve if I had gone alone.
One of my favorite sessions I went to was a brand activations talk called “How to Be Authentic” in marketing. It was led by a representative from NYX makeup, and they had a really interesting perspective on how to make campaigns feel bigger than just a product, and more like a movement. One thing that really stuck with me was a question someone asked; “Before Covid, everything was in person. Then we moved everything online. So how do we combine the two now and create something that feels truly hybrid?” It sparked a great conversation about not just doing both but doing them in a way that actually connects with people on both ends.
The expo itself had a lot of energy and brands were showing off their creativity, and it was cool to see how different companies approach marketing. I left that session with a new appreciation for how intentional brands have to be to really connect with people online and offline.
SXSW offers a plethora of panels, workshops, keynotes, and so much more for people to attend ranging from all kinds of topics. I attending the Demystifying Rural Life: A Crash Course on Marketing to the Heartland, which truthfully when I first read the title had no idea what it meant by “Heartland” however after attending I have a much better understanding of not only who these people are, but as a future advertiser how I can best market to this audience.
Hosted by Chief Strategy Officer & Partner Charlie McKittrick and Strategy Director Camila Caldas the conversation highlighted the misperceptions and disrespect felt by Heartlanders towards corporate advertising, which often stereotypes them as overly masculine or rednecks. The case study revealed that Heartlanders value community deeply, emphasizing genuine, non-performative community involvement and mutual support. They prioritize values like respect, loyalty, and humility which are integral to their community culture. Creativity in the Heartland is a survival skill rather than a hobby, driven by practical ingenuity and hands-on projects. The discussion underscored the need for brands to authentically connect with them by representing their values and demonstrating genuine commitment to the community and creativity.
I thought this was very interesting because though I have not worked on any projects directly targeted to this audience, I imagine that I will at some point, and this information is crucial to helping me capture the essence of what heartlanders think. It seems like a very random niche audience to focus on, but these are a large majority of people who make up big parts of some of the biggest companies such as Budlight.
Throughout his career, Temerlin professor Dr. Mark Allen has worked as an art director and designer for clients including the History Channel, the New York Yankees, Norton/Symantec, Martha Stewart, The Walking Dead, A&E Networks, HBO, the U.S. National Parks Service and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. His work has been recognized for creative excellence in the Print Regional Design Annual and Applied Arts magazine and by the Promotion Marketing Association, the Illustrators Society of Los Angeles and the Dallas Society of Visual Communications. He joined SMU’s newly established Temerlin Advertising Institute in 2003, where he currently teaches various creative advertising courses. Allen recently shared his insights into his students’ work and the shift in teaching creative courses brought about by the pandemic.
“I knew that teaching creative studio-based classes virtually was going to be a challenge, but it was much harder than I anticipated. It was difficult to hold our weekly critiques—the lifeblood of our creative classes—on Zoom because we’re used to walking around the room, making notes, and drawing sketches on the work that plasters every available surface in the classroom. Losing the spatial, tactile dimension of what we do in the classroom was felt every time we met online. Additionally, there’s usually a lot of back-and-forth with the students. But humor and sarcastic banter are hard to pull off on Zoom when most of the class is on mute. More than anything, I miss hearing the flood of input from my students during a critique. They are so smart and so funny, and I depend on their eyes, ears and brains to back me up—and to challenge my ill-advised suggestions. Zoom only allows you to focus on one thing at a time: one voice, one image, etc. And I don’t usually run my classes like that,” Allen explains.
Leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl, Executive-in-Residence Amber Benson spoke with CBS 11 regarding her expectations for this year’s ads. In the interview, Benson noted that Super Bowl staples such as Budweiser, Coke and Pepsi chose to sit out the game, which provided space for newer and smaller brands to play. Benson accurately anticipated more humor in this year’s ads, explaining that advertisers know people needed a comedic break this year. What we didn’t expect to see was the humorous Oatly CEO singing off-key in a field, alone.
Professor Mark Allen agrees with Benson’s insights, citing GM’s “No Way Norway” with Will Ferrell as a big winner of the night. “This one had all the ingredients of a classic Super Bowl commercial: big-budget, big celebrities, big laughs. But this spot was much smarter than it may seem on the surface. Instead of interrupting the big game with a drive-by guilting about carbon emissions, fossil fuels and global warming, GM kept us laughing with an appeal to American patriotism and our competitive spirit. But this time it was all in the service of selling electric vehicles (without taking a cheap shot at gas-guzzling muscle cars). And Will Ferrell was perfect for this one—hilarious,” Allen explains.
Temerlin’s Ad Club organized a socially distant ad viewing party on February 10 and invited LERMA/ agency’s Brian Linder and Bill Cochran to share their creative insights with students. Temerlin senior Sarah Scambray helped organize the event. She says, “I’m so glad we were able to host an in-person event because it allowed everyone to see one another’s reactions as we watched the ads and discuss them openly afterward. It was a great break from the impersonal nature of meeting on Zoom. We also invited a couple of industry professionals to give their take, and it was really cool to hear their in-depth perspective on which ads were truly successful or not.”
Ad Club’s mission is to create a student community of those with an interest in and passion for advertising. The club offers agency and advertising-inspired events, career-building workshops and professional panels that give students the opportunity to learn about the advertising industry, develop the necessary skills to earn internships and jobs, and network with fellow students, alumni and industry professionals. To learn more about Ad Club or join, please contact Ad Club President Meredith Welborn at mjwelborn@smu.edu.