UA Student Team Wins National Competition

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. —The University of Alabama’s Bateman Team won first place in the 2016 Bateman Case Study Competition in Chicago on Wednesday, May 18. This is the fourth year of the Bateman Team has had an active presence at The University of Alabama and its first win at the national competition.

UA’s Bateman Team is housed in the College of Communication and Information Sciences and includes Madalyn Atherton (Huntsville), Christina Coleman (Westlake, California), Torrie Miers (Milton, Georgia), Samantha Vlahos (Monroe, Connecticut) and Megan Wolf (Windermere, Florida).

“I am so proud of how the team created a laser-focused, creative campaign that not only brought positive attention to student veterans, but created a way to make the campaign sustainable beyond this competition,” said Teri Henley, faculty adviser for the Bateman team. “The judges commented especially on those aspects as well as the professional delivery of the presentation.”

This year’s team partnered with the UA Campus Veterans Association to create the “In the Chair” campaign. Whether getting to know student veterans seated next to traditional students in class, advocating for priority registration so campus veterans can get a seat in the classes they need to graduate, or honoring prisoners of war and those missing in action with an empty chair at campus sporting events as a reminder of their service, the chair served as a campaign theme. The Bateman team posted photos of student veterans and other campus community members sitting in the chair talking about how the military has affected their lives. The stories were posted on the campaign website and social media.

PRSSA headquarters received 70 entries for the 2016 Bateman Case Study Competition. Of those submissions, 16 entries received honorable mention, and three were chosen as finalists to present their campaigns to a panel of judges. UA students competed against Loyola University New Orleans and Samford University in the final round of the competition. The team received a cash prize for their win and will be awarded the first place trophy at the national PRSSA conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Monday, October 24, 2016.

The competition is designed to give students the opportunity to apply their classroom education and industry experience to create and implement a full public relations campaign.