Former UT Public Relations Student Wins National Award

A recent UT graduate has won the highest honor given to members of the Public Relations Student Society of America. Joel Rushing is the first UT PRSSA member to win the national Gold Key Award since the student chapter was founded in the late 1960s.

Rushing graduated in August 2002 with degrees in public relations and journalism. He was honored at a banquet in San Francisco at the Public Relations Student Society of America's annual conference, where he received the award that is given to only a few outstanding seniors in PRSSA. Rushing is the immediate past president of the UT PRSSA chapter, one of the oldest in the country. During his junior year, he served as the chapter's webmaster and helped it win the Outstanding Chapter Web Site award at last year's PRSSA conference in Atlanta. Rushing interned with the Chrisman Group, Lois Paul & Partners and Computer Sciences Corporation.

In September 2002, Rushing accepted a position with Edelman in Dallas as a public relations executive where he manages such accounts as Comerica Bank and Wyndham International.

"This is a great honor for Joel and for our chapter", said Ron Anderson, PRSSA faculty adviser and associate professor of advertising. "To be recognized nationally so early in one's career is quite an accomplishment and is indicative of the level of professionalism of our members."

The UT chapter was founded in 1968 by the late Dr. Alan Scott, the first full-time public relations educator in the country, who came to UT in 1955. UT was one of nine universities that met PRSSA's charter requirements that year, which included offering two public relations courses. Since then, Public Relations has grown from a sequence to a degree-granting program in the Department of Advertising.

12/3/2002