PULLMAN, Wash. Jazmyn Sanchez, a senior in Advertising at Washington State University, travels to New York City this week to be recognized as one of the nation’s most promising minority advertising students.
Recently named a finalist for the American Advertising Federation’s “Most Promising Minority Students Award,” Sanchez, 22, was born in the Philippines and grew up in the Seattle area. She becomes the third student from WSU’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication in the past six years to be nominated for the annual AAF award.
The nomination means Sanchez will join 49 other minority seniors who are considered to be “top prospects” for careers in advertising. The students will be given the opportunity to meet, network and interview with advertising industry professionals from large Madison Avenue-style firms at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York.
The AAF is the oldest national advertising trade association, representing 40,000 professionals in the advertising industry.The twin goals of the association’s minority student award program are to prepare advertising’s best young minority prospects for careers in the industry and ultimately to re-shape the advertising industry to better reflect the “multiculturalism of today’s society.”
“My advertising emphasis through the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication has provided me invaluable experiences and opportunities,” Sanchez said. “My time here hasn’t only met my education expectations, it’s exceeded them. It is an honor to be able to represent a program I think so highly of.”
Attending the awards luncheon to honor the WSU student’s achievement will be Murrow College Founding Dean Lawrence Pintak, WSU Advertising Instructor Dan Petek, who nominated Sanchez for the award, and several Murrow alumni who are now senior professional advertising executives.
“Jazmyn’s success epitomizes the fact that Murrow students excel not only in the region, but on the national and global stage,” said Dean Pintak.
Also currently working on a minor in fine arts, Sanchez said she plans to graduate from WSU in May. She completed a professional internship last summer with Cole & Weber United in Seattle and did additional work for the firm last fall. The internship gave her an opportunity to plan, negotiate and execute advertising strategies, she said. While there, she worked on advertising accounts for such clients as Microsoft Office, the Washington State Lottery, and Capella University, an online Minneapolis institution that will now offer courses nationally.
She also works as a graphic designer for the Compton Union Building on the Pullman campus, including marketing for restaurants and organizations based at the CUB.
Sanchez is vice president of WSU’s Advertising Club, which took 21 Pullman students to Seattle last week for a visit to some of the state’s most prominent advertising agencies. She is executive chair of Chi Omega and an assistant soccer coach.
Sanchez said she intended to major in communication since high school and chose WSU because of the prestige of the Edward R. Murrow name. She said she chose advertising after taking a one-credit Com 138 class at WSU, which provides an overview of communications fields.
“I found my niche. I found my passion,” Sanchez said. “I can only hope to give back the type of dedication, enthusiasm, and quality that my professors and networks have invested in me. I am forever grateful that this school has brought out the best in me by believing in my talent and goals.”
Professor Petek said Sanchez is a perfect match with the AAF’s required criteria for a “promising student.”
A WSU reception for Sanchez in New York City has been scheduled this Thursday at the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue. Guests will include Joe Jelic, a partner in ECD Cult 360 Advertising; Rick Boyce, an internet sales pioneer, and Kay Wight, a Murrow alum and former CBS executive, who was recruited to the network from WSU by Edward R. Murrow himself.
Media contact:
Larry Ganders, 360-280-6320, lawrence.ganders@wsu.edu