SMU senior among nation’s 'Most Promising Minority Students' in advertising

DALLAS (SMU) – Southern Methodist University student Andrea Barreto has been named by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) as a winner in the AAF’s “Most Promising Minority Students” national competition for 2013.

Andrea Barreto

Kevin Do

Barreto, a Hispanic student from McKinney, Texas, is a senior advertising major in the Temerlin Advertising Institute at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.

In addition, Temerlin senior Kevin Do, an Asian-American student from Richardson, Texas, was named to the AAF’s Honor Roll.

The 51 top winners of the Most Promising Minority Students competition, who represent some 31 colleges nationwide, recently attended a three-day program in New York City. The event included an awards luncheon and the opportunity to meet with recruiters and executives from leading advertisers, agencies and media companies.

Now in its 17th year, the AAF’s Most Promising Minority Students program connects the advertising industry with the nation’s top minority college seniors in advertising, marketing, media and communications. The program, an initiative of the AAF’s Mosaic Center, provides opportunities to recruit fresh talent, to further prepare advertising’s best young prospects and to help the industry’s workforce better reflect the multiculturalism of today’s society. The program not only honors the students, but enhances their knowledge and understanding of the advertising industry by offering networking, interviewing and industry immersion opportunities with advertising professionals.

“The Most Promising program nurtures students of color who are talented and capable of making exceptional contributions to the advertising industry,” said Candace Elliott, manager of the Mosaic Center and special events for AAF. “We are committed to awarding deserving students who have shown academic excellence, leadership and a desire to pursue a career in advertising with opportunities to learn from and network with some of the industry’s leading professionals and companies.”  

“Andrea and Kevin have truly distinguished themselves by earning these honors and reflect the significant focus of their SMU faculty mentors in preparing students to lead the advertising industry in the coming decades,” said Dr. Steven Edwards, chair of the Temerlin Advertising Institute at the Meadows School. “They are both outstanding students, and we are very proud of them.” Meadows advertising students have been honored as winners in 13 of the 17 years of the AAF competition’s existence.

The competition provides a significant career advantage to winners. Alumni of the Most Promising Minority Students Program from 2006-2010 were surveyed by Alice Kendrick, professor of advertising at SMU, and Jami Fullerton, professor at Oklahoma State University. The survey found that 80 percent of the winners were successfully employed in advertising and marketing communications and were satisfied with their jobs.

“The AAF Most Promising Minority Student event was a very valuable experience because it allowed me to not only gain insight and see first-hand the direction the advertising industry is moving towards, but also realize what part I want to take in that movement,” said Barreto. “Getting to talk to some of the most influential members of the industry and also getting to know the other student participants in the program will be very important to me in the future. Overall, the event was a powerful source of inspiration and I feel truly fortunate to have been chosen.”

The AAF competition is open to all graduating seniors of African, Asian, Latino, Native American or Pacific Island descent.  Students must have a minimum 3.2 GPA and be nominated through an AAF-affiliated college chapter, local advertising federation, invited college/university or senior level ad professional representing an AAF corporate member company. The program is sponsored by the AAF in partnership with Advertising Age magazine and Pepsi and is supported by many advertising and media company sponsors.

Established in 2001 in the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU, the Temerlin Advertising Institute for Education and Research is the country’s first endowed institute for the study of advertising.

Offering both B.A. and M.A. degrees, TAI trains students to search for unique solutions in advertising, preparing them for work in advertising agencies, media firms, corporate marketing departments and design studios. In its first decade of existence, TAI has established an award-winning track record. Students have earned numerous honors, including two national and four district championships in the AAF National Student Advertising Competition and dozens of creative awards in prestigious regional, national and international competitions, including The One Show, CMYK Magazine and The Art Directors Club of New York. In addition, the Temerlin Institute has been named one of 10 leaders in advertising education among colleges and universities in the U.S. by Stuart Elliott, advertising critic for The New York Times.

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