Students participate in NAMI campaign
By Bill Morrison
Staff Reporter

Advertising and public relations students received some real-world experience while completing a three-day campaign Wednesday to inform students about mental illness in association with the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

Doug Newsom, a journalism professor who teaches the Public Relations Advertising Cases and Problems class, said the NAMI campaign is a project that has been worked on for two semesters and is run by students. She said the goal of the campaign was to increase students’ knowledge about mental illness statistics.

The project began Monday with members of the class handing out brochures and smoothies, followed by a promotional three-on-three basketball tournament Tuesday night. Wednesday there was a speaker and a showing of “A Beautiful Mind.”

“We’re really an experimental group, because we are the first group to develop a national campaign for NAMI for college campuses,” said Juile Friedman, a senior advertising/public relations major. “We dealt with problems along the way first-hand and learned more than what you can find in a textbook.”

Real-world experience is what senior international communication major Caroline Clayton said she gained from working on the project.

“It has been a great learning experience, trying to create events that attract college students and grab their attention, but not lose the message,” Clayton said. “I gained experience that I honestly wouldn’t have in any other class.”

Newsom said the project began in the Public Relations Principles class and that the students liked the NAMI project so much that they wanted to work on it more. She said this is the first time she has worked on a national project in the class.

“The kids are really frazzled, but it has been good for them,” Newsom said. “It’s been a great learning experience and the students will have great stuff for their portfolios.”

Sheila Berry, a senior advertising/public relations major, said the class has spent three to four hours a week on the project since the beginning of the semester. She said they conducted a survey of almost 700 students to find out how aware the TCU community was of mental illness.

“We’re trying to cover all the bases and let people know what is going on,” Berry said. “We want to let people know there is help for those with mental illness.”

Jenny Gravley, a senior international communication major, said the class was split into four groups, with one for each day of the campaign and one for promotions.

“It was so much more difficult to implement the ideas than we thought it would be,” Gravley said. “This was 20 times better than any book.”

Staff Reporter Lauren Hanvey contributed to this story.

w.c.morrison@tcu.edu