• Students in advertising professor Dorothy Pisarski’s Concepts in Consumer Awareness class met with Oakridge Neighborhood Chief Executive Officer Teree Caldwell-Johnson during a visit to the Oakridge Neighborhood on Sept. 8. Students will be crafting a strategy and executing tactics for supporting fundraising initiatives for preschool and afterschool programs at Oakridge. The Oakridge Neighborhood is celebrating its 45th year in Des Moines, providing affordable housing to the most vulnerable populations.
• SJMC faculty counted 21 Drake alumni among the nominees in the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ 2015 Midwest Regional Emmy Awards. Winners will be announced at a gala in Minneapolis in October.
• Drake SJMC students and recent graduates are finalists in two major national contests that honor the best of collegiate journalism. The Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) and College Media Association (CMA) contests recognize reporting and writing, multimedia, design, photography, and video. Winners of both contests will be announced at the joint ACP/CMA student media convention in Austin, Texas, in late October. For more information, see the SJMC website.

—Submitted by Kathleen Richardson, Dean, School of Journalism and Mass Communication