Dear Professors,

I would like to share the great news with you that our
team from the Cleveland State Advertising Association
[a student organization of the Journalism and
Promotional Communication division] was placed
prestigiously at #4th place in the 2007 National
Student Advertising Competition organized by the
American Advertising Federation.

Our team defeated the University of Kentucky, Xavier
University, Bellarmine University, Youngstown State
University, Murray State University and Mt. Vernon
Nazarene University.

These are universities that not only have been
participating in several previous competitions but
also had great financial resources and offered their
students class credits for participating in this
competition. Additionally, each team from these
schools have had the chance to prepare for the
competition for more than 9 month [whereas our team
had 3 month total].

The first three schools that were placed before us
were Marshall University, Western Kentucky University
and Ohio University [in this order].

The competition was really close. One judge, who was a
representative from Coca-Cola was particularly
impressed with our school's multicultural advertising
concept, the "Coke Soul."

Cleveland State was definitely the only school that
understood the importance of multicultural marketing
and addressed this issue to the fullest.

The competition has been a great learning- and
professional experience to all our team members. For
several of our members this was the first time they
have been outside of Cleveland [the competition took
place in Kentucky]. Additionally, many professors from
other universities have personally come up to our team
to congratulate and encouraging us to participate in
the upcoming competitions again.

It was truly inspiring and heart-warming to see CSU
students putting all their efforts into this project
and being so passionate about it. Many of them even
shed some tears at the announcement of the results.

I would like to share the team members' names with you
and ask you to please congratulate them in case if any
one of them are taking your classes.

Gregg Meggliss
Wesam Elrabadi
Tania Santos
Megan Tirabessi
Laura Novak
Charity Skowronski
Rashid Rashid
and Anthony Segreti.

Even though half of these people are graduating this
year, the remaining half is determined to win first
place next year at this competition.

Finally, I would like to THANK you for all of your help,
encouragement and the great education you provide us
here at the School of Communication. Without you, the
Cleveland State Advertising Association could never
had such great, driven, creative and competitive
students.

And last but not least our team would like to
especially thank professors Sukki Yoon's and
Robert Spademan's outstanding and continuous support in
the preparation and the execution of the competition
and the trust they had in our team.

This will definitely remain a day to remember in all
of our lives.

Again, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for all of you.

Bettina Lunk
President
CSAA