Senior Josie Carrabine won four gold awards, including Student Best of Show, and Spanish exchange student Paula Aguirre won a silver award in the local American Advertising Federation of America Des Moines contest, presented at the annual banquet. Josie also won awards for direct marketing, art direction (campaign) and integrated brand identity campaign. Paula won in the print advertising category. Josie’s work will move on to the regional contest.

Kathleen Richardson, dean, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Two Drake advertising students have won awards in the annual American Advertising Federation of Des Moines contest. Josie Carrabine and Paula Aguirre Gurruchaga will find out which awards they won at the AAF banquet on Feb. 23. Carrabine is a senior advertising and graphic design major. Aguirre is an international student from Universidad Nebrija in Spain.

Kathleen Richardson, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Drake University doctoral candidate in the School of Education Kean Roberts and Jerrid Kruse, associate professor of education, recently published an article exploring ideas and strategies educators might use to help students develop more robust ideas about nature and strengthen their relationship with nature. Many of the ideas were pilot tested by Roberts in his work with middle and high school students as well as during Kruse’s honors course that engaged students in experiences and philosophical dialogue about nature. View the article.

Jerrid Kruse, School of Education

Drake University’s accounting program was ranked #88 out of 623 schools nationwide. This puts the school’s program in the Top 15% of all accounting programs in the United States. Drake improved its position by four slots over the previous year’s ranking of 92. Read the full press release here.

—Kailee Springer, CBPA Undergraduate Office

Marketing students from Drake University and Creighton University met in Omaha recently for the fifth annual Murphy Cup, a marketing student case competition. Students worked in teams to develop strategies for marketing a new wholly-owned subsidiary of Union Pacific, a railroad franchise that operates in 23 U.S. states.

The Murphy Cup is the vision of Drake University alumnus Chris Murphy, a member of Creighton’s Board of Trustees and owner of the Ameriwest Corp holding company and First Westroads bank in Omaha, to hold an annual marketing strategy competition featuring top marketing major seniors from Creighton and Drake. Murphy made a substantial donation to make this event possible, covering all event expenses and accommodations.

Each year, twelve students are chosen by the marketing faculty to represent each school. This year’s students from Drake included Haley Morris, Hannah Hoefft, Emily Furlow, Maddy Gildersleeve, Taylor Monkman, Erin Hirter, Rebecca Crepeau, Ben Danile, Dustin Casey, Max Raecker, Louis LaFeve, and Cort McElmury. The competition was held from Nov. 16–18.

On this year’s winning team were Crepeau, who also was honored as the year’s Most Knowledgeable Contributor, and Max Raecker. Casey was named Most Creative Contributor. All students received keepsake items commemorating the event.

“The skills that students need to learn to prepare themselves for the real world can’t always be learned within the classroom,” Casey said. “But Drake and its College of Business and Public Administration do a great job of giving students opportunities to gain these skills through competitions and internships.”

For more information about the Murphy Cup, contact:
Andrew Norman, professor of marketing, at atnorman@drake.edu.

Kailee Springer, College of Business & Public Administration

On Saturday, Nov. 3, the Drake Innovators Club sponsored the annual Bark Tank Competition. This competition is for any Drake student with an innovation or business idea. There were seven participants and the top prizes went to:

Drake seniors Katrina Sletten and Ellen Converse have been named finalists for the national PR News People Awards. Sletten is a finalist for PR Student of the Year and Converse is nominated for Intern of the Year.

The winners will be named at the annual PR People Awards Luncheon on Dec. 4 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The event celebrates the top professionals in public relations. This makes three years in a row an SJMC public relations student has been named a finalist in each category.

Sletten is finishing her work as a triple public relations, astronomy and physics major. She spent the summer in the Brooke Owens Fellowship program as an intern with the Museum of Flight in Seattle in the Digital Learning Department.

Converse, a PR and history major, had a summer internship in D.C. as education outreach coordinator at the Newseum. She has also had internships at AARP and the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Neb.

Kathleen Richardson, SJMC

Drake Magazine has received the top award in college journalism, winning a national Pacemaker honor at the recent Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Association convention in Louisville, Ky.

Urban Plains, the multimedia website produced by Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication seniors, also won Associated Collegiate Press awards:

• Second place, multimedia feature: Urban Plains, Katherine Bauer, Genna Clemen and Jess Lynk
• Fifth place, multimedia sports: Urban Plains, Matthew Gogerty and Adam Rogan

In the College Media Association competition, Drake won four Pinnacle awards:

• Best Magazine Contents Page/Spread: First Place, Drake Magazine
• Best Online Main Page: Second Place, Urban Plains
• Best Portrait: Second Place, Urban Plains
• Best Arts and Entertainment Story: Third Place, Urban Plains

Kathleen Richardson, SJMC