Loyola’s Bateman Team made a case for itself when it brought home top honors from competition this month.
The PRSSA Bateman Teams, in both 2005 and 2006, won two Silver Anvil awards and two Awards of Excellence. The Silver Anvil is the highest honor given by the PRSSA. Senior Michael Cowen also received the 2006 annual PRSSA scholarship at the Audubon Golf Club awards banquet on Nov. 16.
“It brings me great satisfaction that our students can compete so successfully with professionals in the community, and I have great confidence that our students can make outstanding contributions in society once they graduate,” said Cathy Rogers, associate professor of mass communication and head of the public relation sequence and adviser of the Bateman team.
Formerly second- and third-place recipients of the National PRSSA Bateman Case Study campaign, the 2005 and 2006 teams entered the New Orleans chapter competition against local public relations professionals. “The amount of work (that went into the campaigns) is hard to quantify,” said Rogers.
In 2006, the team’s “Get Back in the Habit” campaign competed in the external category, which looks at programs aimed at community betterment through informational activities, while 2005’s project, “Check Out My Ethics” was entered in the internal relations campaign category, which includes programs designed to improve relationships or correct misunderstandings with groups. Both campaign projects won the Award of Excellence and Silver Anvil awards.
The team concentrates on different issues annually and works to promote and explain their clients’ interests. “Check out My Ethics” educated students about what cheating is, Rogers said. The “Get Back in the Habit” campaign was presented for Habitat for Humanity’s New Orleans affiliate.
The Loyola Bateman team, which began in 1995, has been in the PRSSA top five every year since 1996. The team has won the Silver Anvil Award in 2001 and 2004. An average of 60 to 80 university PRSSA chapters nationwide compete each spring for awards, said Rogers.
The team is made up of five members working on case study projects that are entered into different categories and competitions each spring.
As Loyola’s second consecutive winner of the Annual Public Relations Society of America scholarship, mass communication senior Michael Cowen shared the limelight at the awards ceremony. The scholarship contest was open to students at Nicholls State, McNeese State and Loyola University.
Cowen’s winning essay topic discussed the crisis communication problems post-Katrina and Rita using the Marc Morial Convention Center and Central Business Districts as examples.
Loyola’s 2007 Bateman team project, titled “Family Care Giving,” focuses on the self-identification of being a care-giver and promotes awareness of resources that are available, said Rogers.
Rosie Dao can be reached at [email protected].
