40 Hours for the Forty Acres 2020

Who We Are

The Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations is a world-class program for students interested in the advertising and public relations industries at the undergraduate, Master's or Ph.D. level.

From challenging degree requirements to our priority of intertwining as much of the “real world” as possible in the classroom, our school is continually providing the tools needed to create the next leaders in advertising and PR. As a Research I academic institution, we live by our motto: Theory x Practice.

The mission of the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations is to continually seek ways to train and empower students, staff and faculty of all ethnicities, races, genders and identities to work collaboratively to produce world-changing ads, PR campaigns and research.

What We’re Fundraising For

The Stan Richards School Senior Gift Endowment is being established to support and elevate future Stan Richards School students, providing them with access to opportunities that might otherwise remain limited or altogether unavailable.

Students who have more financial need are often not able to participate in many vital industry activities on campus or beyond. Often this is a result of having a more demanding workload and simply fewer resources to draw upon to pay for fees, professional student organization memberships, or other professional development activities. In the fields of advertising and PR, growth and networking well outside of the classroom are critical. Helping students financially and empowering them to be more involved and engaged in these areas will greatly improve their long-term success.

This fund is a collaborative effort of the Stan Richards School, the Moody Comm Council, the Texas Advertising Group, and other student organizations. Giving to this fund will provide alumni, graduating seniors, and their families the opportunity to leave behind a legacy of financial support for students.

Your Impact

Gaining real-world insights at guest speaker talks, in-market field trips, and multi-market immersions, polishing interviewing skills at career-mentoring workshops, earning recognition at national student competitions, and securing internships and post-graduation employment via professional networking events are the many career-launching experiences from which active paid members of advertising and PR national student chapter organizations can benefit. Sadly, the national association dues for joining just one of these organizations can be cost-prohibitive for many students.

There are many other local-area professional development activities that Stan Richards School students can participate in, but too often many students with significant financial need must maintain such heavy work schedules that they may not have flexibility in their schedules to participate.

The impact of the Stan Richards School Senior Gift Scholarship Excellence Fund will be that students who frequently find themselves on the outside of trajectory changing experiences for financial reasons will finally be able to fully engage. Seniors and their families who donate to this fund will be creating a life-changing legacy of support for scholarship recipients to be able to take their academic experiences well beyond the classroom, and kick-start their own career success.