Stephen F. Austin State University

SFA was recently named "Most Valuable School" at the Houston Advertising Federation Conference and Competition.

Holly Yurchick, a senior art and advertising design student, won first place in the student nametag design competition and also led the winning ad campaign team. Other students on the first-place team were Theresa Machac of the communication department and Earlest Small from the marketing department. Stacey Helaire and Theo Civitello, communications students, were on the second place team. Joseph Combo from the communication department was on the third-place team.

SFA was represented by eight art students, 16 communications students and 12 marketing students. Altogether, 260 students from 15 universities representing four states attended.

Yurchick said she was excited about her success at the competition, as well as the success of SFA.

"It was good to see SFA win over much larger schools, such as UT and LSU," she said.

The winning nametag Yurchick created was the one thing she was able to do in advance, for the competition.

The concept for the ad campaign was not announced until the day of competition.

"The client we were given sells construction software, and they wanted a new idea about how to sell it," Yurchick said. "We had six hours to develop a year-long campaign."

Students were divided into groups and went to Houston advertising agencies to work on their ideas.

"We worked straight through the time we were allotted without taking any breaks," Yurchick said. "I knew we had good ideas and good plans. I was glad we won."

The idea that Yurchick's group pitched to their client was selling their three different software packages together in one package — capitalizing on the theme of "efficiency."

"They had been selling their software programs individually," Yurchick said. "Our idea was to increase efficiency, by selling them as bundles."

Yurchick and Laura McCord, who also participated in the competition, said it was also enjoyable to work with students from the marketing and communication departments at SFA. They said it gave them a taste of what it will be like, when they have jobs working in the industry.

McCord said the competition required a true group effort.

"This is what it will really be like for us, when we work on professional ad campaigns," she said.

Yurchick, who will graduate this weekend, said it was also enlightening to work on their campaign ideas in professional Houston firms.

"We used their equipment, and they gave us tours of their offices," she said. "It gave me a chance to meet people who are doing my dream job."

Yurchick and McCord said they believe SFA fared well against larger schools, because SFA students receive more individualized attention.

"We have smaller classes, which means we have more interaction with our teachers," Yurchick said.

McCord added that there are more opportunities at SFA, than larger schools, for students to have their work displayed and viewed.

"At a bigger school, students don't get the type of attention we get here," Yurchick said.

McCord said she appreciated the chance to work with groups of people she had never met, at the competition.

"It was a great networking opportunity," she said. "We're still communicating, with some of the people we met, through e-mail and Facebook (a social networking Web site)."

Yurchick and McCord said they appreciate the involvement of their teachers in their work.

"Peter Andrew, art professor at SFA,does a lot of recruiting," McCord said. "He genuinely cares about the well-being of his students."

McCord said she ultimately chose SFA because of the class sizes, the beauty of the campus and the small-town setting. McCord said she found it affordable, and two cousins who attended SFA spoke highly of their experiences.

As Yurchick prepares to graduate this weekend and McCord prepares to graduate next year, they said they are prepared to meet the challenges of their future occupations.

Faculty advisers of the SFA chapter of the American Marketing Association are Dr. Marlene Kahla and Barbara Bieber-Hamby. Faculty adviser for the Association of Men and Women in Communication is Linda Bond. Andrew is faculty adviser of the AdHoc Club, SFA's chapter of the American Advertising Federation.