AAAA awards Texas Creatives $20,000 in scholarships

The American Association of Advertising Agencies, better known as AAAA, awarded Anna Mejia and Maria Ramirez-Romo de Vivar a $10,000 scholarship each, split over the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years. Both recipients are first year MA candidates in the UT Advertising department and are pursuing the Texas Creative program

The scholarships are a part of the Association's Operation Jumpstart III program, which provides financial assistance to aspiring multicultural art directors and copywriters who have been accepted into AAAA participating portfolio graduate schools, such as UT Austin. The program has provided over 130 scholarships to students since 1998.

Maria Ramirez-Romo de Vivar was born in Mexico City, and has lived in Austin, TX and several cities throughout Mexico. She received a bachelors degree in graphic design from The Universidad de Monterrey in 1998 and moved to Austin for a second time in 2000. After working for the UT Graduate School Recruiting office for several years, "I decided it was time to 'recruit myself' and apply to grad school", reported Maria.

"I always knew I wanted to follow my dad's steps and receive a UT Austin graduate degree", said Maria. She added, "The Advertising program is ranked one of best in the country and after careful thought I realized it was a great area to apply my graphic design knowledge."

Anna Mejia is from Spring, TX and received her undergraduate degree in persuasive writing from St. Edwards University, in South Austin. Originally, she wanted to be a journalist, but got tired of its objective nature. Her second year she tried a desktop publishing class. "The class was pretty much producing print ads and flyers--I loved it. After the course my professor approached me about getting my MA in advertising. I chose UT because of their Texas Creative Program", explained Anna.

"I am very honored to have been selected for this fellowship", said Maria. She continued, "I am enjoying the Advertising master's program tremendously, and I know it is one of the best decisions I've taken toward my academic and professional career." Maria is the proud mother of a 2-year old son and is expecting a daughter in May.

Anna was also grateful for the scholarship and gave some insight to her future plans: "I want to be a copywriter. I want to start at the bottom and work countless hours until I reach the top, win awards, and maybe one day become a creative director. However, as long as I'm writing, I'll be happy."

For more information about AAAA's scholarships

or The University of Texas Advertising Program contact Gary Wilcox, the graduate adviser.

1/16/2008