Bowie State Places Second in U.S. Postal Service Competition

Direct Effect Innovation Challenge Has Students Focused on Arthur Ashe

MEDIA CONTACT: David Thompson, dlthompson@bowiestate.edu, 301-860-4311

(BOWIE, Md.) – Students from Bowie State’s Visual Communication & Digital Media Arts (VCDMA) and Department of Communications placed second in the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) Direct Effect Innovation Challenge which is designed to encourage teams from colleges and universities to participate in a one-of-a-kind event that brings student teams together to design and develop integrated marketing campaigns in response to real-life business cases.

The seven BSU students were challenged to develop social media, print design, direct mail, and other elements of an integrated marketing campaign to support The Arthur Ashe Legacy at UCLA, a non-profit organization that offers scholarships, internships, and programs to support students currently enrolled in institutions of higher learning.  Bowie State competed with teams from Eastern Kentucky University, Georgetown University, and Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) for a chance to be crowned the winner of the local contest.

“Although we finished in second place to winner Eastern Kentucky University, the work our students produced was outstanding,” said VCDMA Professor and faculty co-advisor Rodney Williams. “Our team created a prototype fold-out brochure for the Arthur Ashe Legacy at UCLA that was simply beautiful. I strongly believe that the Eastern Kentucky team’s inclusion of Tik Tok in their integrated marketing plan presentation and tactics made the difference in them winning the competition.” 

BSU students who participated in the USPS Direct Effect Innovation Challenge include VCDMA graphic design majors Asia Coleman, Matthew Cruz, Nia Hicks, Chimaroke Onwuemenyi and Communications Department majors Nicholas Cavanaugh, Donnell Pettus and Maya Tillman.

“This was our first year and we chalk this up as a major learning experience,” said Talisha Dunn-Square, a Communications Department professor and faculty co-advisor to the team. “The competition mimicked what happens each day in business with requirements to provide deliverables under tight deadlines. We’re not discouraged because we didn’t win. We’re already thinking about next year.”

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