Ms. Rogers' 4th Graders and their Partners and Friends at Texas Advertising & PR

The faculty and staff of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations have some very special partners, who may be Longhorns themselves someday -- Ms. Lindsay Rogers' 4th grade class at Britain Lee Elementary School in Irving. The 4th graders adopted U.T. as the university that they would study for a year as a part of a school-wide program to encourage the children to plan to go to college. Britain Elementary School is a Title 1 school, and many of its students typically have not considered college to be an option. In Oct. of 2009, Ms. Rogers, a loyal U.T. alum, wrote the following in an e-mail to Isabella Cunningham, asking that U.T. adopt her students:

I LOVED my years at UT in Austin! I believe that The University of Texas is a wonderful place to get an education, and I am proud to share my experience with my students. I am hoping that UT also chooses to adopt my class; therefore I am emailing people at the university that I think might be able to help.

Professor Cunningham, who had never met Ms. Rogers, was moved by Ms. Rogers' e-mail, so she forwarded it to the Advertising & Public Relations faculty. Meme Drumwright proposed to the Advertising & Public Relations faculty that they collect money to buy the t-shirts and offered to shop for the shirts. Within 24 hours, 21 faculty members had e-mailed her expressing enthusiastic support for the project. Sean Thompson created a card with the faculty photo on it to send to the students along with the t-shirts.

The partnership spread to encompass a number of other U.T. departments and offices. Professor Drumwright forwarded Ms. Rogers' e-mail to Susan Clagett in the Office of Relationship Management and Special Events and to Don Hale in the Office of Public Affairs. Both Ms. Clagett and Mr. Hale donated U.T. materials for Lindsay's classroom and students (e.g., U.T. bookmarks, fans, posters, a 2009 graduation CD). Ms. Clagett had the coordinator of Explore U.T. contact Lindsay and invite her and her students to Explore U.T. Professor Drumwright told George Mitchell, president of the University Co-op, about Lindsay's students, and the Co-op donated U.T./OU pins and magnetic Bevo Sports toys for the students. Gary Wilcox contacted Mark Franklin, a U.T. Baseball administrator, and he had the U.T. Baseball team autograph a t-shirt for Lindsay to display in her classroom and sent some U.T. materials.

Ms. Rogers and Professor Drumwright met on Oct. 17 at the new University Co-op in Dallas after the U.T./OU game. Ms. Rogers said that she had been overwhelmed by the support that U.T. had provided her and her students. (She had made the same request last year to other parts of U.T. and had not received a response.) She said that her students were ecstatic to receive the U.T. t-shirts and other materials. She also said that the program appeared to be working because her students had been talking about wanting to make good grades so that they could attend the University of Texas some day.

In Dec., Professor Drumwright and her husband, H.W. Perry, Jr., a U.T. Government and Law professor, visited Britain Elementary School to speak to Ms. Rogers students. They also presented the students with two wall hangings that Coach Mack Brown had autographed for them. Professors Drumwright and Perry reported that the visit was a heart-warming experience. The class sang "Texas Fight" and "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You," and one student even sang a song about U.T. that she had written. The students asked many, many questions about U.T and expressed their desire to visit U.T.

Ms. Rogers applied for and received a field trip grant from Target to bring her students to Explore U.T. The grant was for $800, but she needed $600 more to charter a bus. The faculty and staff of the Department of Advertising and Public Relations are taking up a collection to provide the remaining funds needed for the trip. They invited the Department of Finance to join them in the effort because Ms. Rogers was a Finance major.

Check out the Ms. Rogers' 4th graders' blog:

http://www.missrogers09.blogspot.com