Notable News
Kelli Masters to Hold Book Signing
Kelli Masters, University of Oklahoma 1995 journalism graduate and 1999 law graduate, published in August her first book “High-Impact Life: A Sports Agent’s Secrets to Finding and Fulfilling a Purpose You Can’t Lose.” She's visiting Gaylord College at 5 p.m. April 14 to sign copies of the book, and the event is open to the public. To read more about Masters and her book, click here for a story from a past JayMac Newsletter.
Gaylord Shines at Recent Competitions
Congratulations to the Gaylord College students and faculty for their success at the BEA Festival of Media Arts and the Oklahoma Broadcast Association!
The BEA Festival of Media Arts
This year, Gaylord College won its most awards ever in the BEA Festival of Media Arts! This is an important international competition because later in the spring, the BEA will announce school rankings based on a five-year record of the performance of their students. Winners spanned three of Gaylord's majors, including creative media production, journalism and professional writing. Highlights include a "Best of Festival" in radio news and a record number of first-place wins. OU was competing against 1,400 entries from around the globe. Multiple winners include Kate Furney, Justin Jayne, Jordan Martin, Josh Romer and Alex Semikopenko, and a full list of OU's winners can be found below.
The OBEA Student Competition Winners
The Oklahoma Broadcast Education Association Student Competition is the most active state-run video competition in America. The importance of this competition is it allows a picture of how OU stacks up against students from other Oklahoma schools, and Gaylord College was ranked at the top. This year was one of OU’s best performances in OBEA, with students capturing 38% of the awards competing against 10 schools. Twenty-nine individual students are named along with major endeavors like Gaylord Hall Productions, OU Nightly and the Set. Several students won multiple awards including. Josh Romer (5), Alex Semikopenko (3), Beth Wallis and Jordan Martin (2).
OU Food Pantry Celebrates Milestone
This month, the OU Food Pantry celebrated five years of operation. Matt Marks, a pantry co-founder and current advisor, is also a JayMac Board member. He and his team are doing incredible work and making such an impact on campus. Below you'll find a couple of links to recent stories highlighting the work the pantry does.
Gaylord Professor Receives Firelight Media Grant
Congratulations to Colleen Thurston, assistant professor of journalism, on being named a recipient of the Spark Fund from non-fiction production company Firelight Media. The initiative was created to support established independent filmmakers who identify as Black, Indigenous and/or people of color, and whose humanities-themed works were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and will provide 36 stipends of $50,000 to selected filmmakers throughout one year.
A Gaylord Love Story
Congratulations to Maci French and Logan Webb on their December 2021 wedding. The Webbs met in Gaylord College, where Maci studied advertising and Logan was a creative media production major.
JayMac Spotlights
Check out the JayMac Spotlights page to catch up with fellow Gaylord alumni and read more about what they are up to around the world. Some of the most recent spotlights have featured Hannah Allam (The Washington Post), Brook A. Simmons (Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma) and Melea McCreary (TODAY Show).