Stories of Success: The Treasure of Winners
By Elisabeth Balke
Over more than a decade, the Washington Media Scholars Foundation has distributed scholarships and merit-based awards in total excess of $1 million to 500+ students from hundreds of colleges and universities across the United States. The stories of students’ career successes from the Media Scholars and Media Fellows alumni are the true treasures of both the WMSF programs.
Get to know the stories of success from the Media Scholars Case Competition Winners and Runners-Up of competitions past!
Andrews-Kunerth Alliance, 2018 Winners
This winning team has a story unlike that of any team in this round-up. The reason being that the team members, Marissa Kunerth and Allyssa Andrews, hadn’t yet met when they were paired after the qualifying round of the case competition.
“Coming from two different universities and possessing diverse professional backgrounds, Allyssa and I were able to put our heads together and take a creative and strategic approach to the case study,” Kunerth said.
Together, they presented a winning case and experienced many successes in Media Scholars week. For Kunerth this meant landing two interviews during Media Scholars Week and a job offer with the Cox Media Group soon after the week’s events concluded.
“Within two weeks after the competition, I had officially moved to Washington, D.C. and had over 1,000 LinkedIn profile views and 25 job interviews scheduled. I never imagined as a recent college graduate, I would be in the position of having multiple companies coming up to me asking if I was interested in working for them,” she said.
Kunerth is currently living in Washington, D.C. and working remotely as the Communications and Public Relations Manager for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA).
Andrews is now a Senior Advertising Strategist at Veracity Media, which works with progressive political candidates and nonprofits across the country. One of her favorite parts of the competition was the access she had to working with real-life data.
“Since it’s difficult for colleges to gain access to real-life data, it’s often difficult to craft real-life scenarios,” Andrews said. “Without that initial experience with data, I don’t know if I would have gone into digital advertising immediately—and I’m very glad I did!”
Kunerth was not sure what to expect when she begin the competition, but she summed up her big take aways: “Because of WMSF, I became best friends with my randomly assigned case competition partner, Allyssa Andrews, grew my professional network that has helped me advance my career, and made DC feel more like home.”
Team Gamecocks, 2019 Winners
Two alumni and winners, Noah McGill And Suzanne Green, presented an outstanding case in 2019 as Team Gamecocks. Noah was able to give insight into their experience and tell us a little more about his recent successes.
“I think the thing I found most challenging was interpreting the data given to us to make sure I really understood the facts of the issue I was trying to solve. That was the key to my team’s eventual success,” McGill said. “We had a firm, qualitative grasp on the issue, and this set us up well for being able to strategize a solution.”
He said that as the two strategized, they asked themselves a series of questions:
Why did we make this choice?
Do we have the data to back up this argument?
Can we clearly and succinctly explain our reasoning behind it?
His most memorable moment of the case competition was getting to present Team Gamecock’s strategic media plan to judges at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
Another experience he enjoyed was the opportunity to job shadow one of CNN’s Directors of Digital Partnerships & Sales. “We sat in on a conference call where senior executives discussed plans and results of a marketing campaign for the Handmaid’s Tale that CNN was partnering with Hulu on. The whole experience was fun and informative.”
“During Media Scholars week, we visited a lot of companies that span many different subcategories of the media industry but each of which use new technology in exciting ways,” McGill said. “We learned how i360 uses data science to power grassroots campaigns; how Google is allowing advertisers to reach targeted audiences through its diverse set of platforms; how Axios is using “smart brevity” to re-engage traditional audiences; and much more.”
McGill currently works as a Data Analyst at Purple Strategies in Alexandria, Virginia. “First and foremost, WMSF helped me land the job I have now,” he explained. “I’d also say it has guided my career aspirations significantly.”
His teammate, Green, now works as a Digital Media Coordinator with National Media in Alexandria, Virginia.
Bell Bottom Media, 2020 Runners-Up
The team comprising Bell Bottom Media, Avery Grundy and Kylie Kost, shared their experiences about the process of presenting their final case virtually. Learning how to present over a videoconference was a skillset both teammates picked up.
“We rehearsed our presentation every morning for about 2 months leading up to Media Scholars Week. Learning to present over zoom was a talking point I took to interviews after the competition,” said Grundy. “Right after our presentation, my partner Kylie and I called each other. We were elated and smiling ear to ear.”
Kost remembers her favorite part of the competition being the virtual presentation. “Being able to present our campaign to a panel of industry leaders … gave us real world experience and feedback,” she said, “It set me up to be able to fully think through an entire campaign.”
Both teammates have recently graduated from Iowa State University and are now working full time.
Grundy is currently working for E.W. Scripps as an Ad Operations Analyst. “I learned about ad operations during media week and from then on started looking for ad ops jobs. On top of meeting new people, you learn about so many different parts of the media industry during Media Scholars Week, some you have never heard of as a student,” she said.
Kost now works at Purple Strategies in Alexandria, Virginia as a Campaign Coordinator.
“I would not be here if it weren’t for WMSF,” she said. “I gained so many incredible connections and experiences that are helping me transition full-time at a strategy firm.”
Bearcat Consulting, 2020 Winners
The most recent winners of the Washington Media Scholars case competition are Alexander Lai and Erik Zhao from Binghamton University. Lai was able to give us insight into how the two worked as a team throughout to present the most strategic plan possible.
“I first applied to the 2019 case competition as I was interested in media strategy as a practice. I unfortunately didn’t make it to the final round that year, but I applied in 2020 with my sights set on a win,” he explained.
Using what he and his partner learned in classes, they looked at the case problem from multiple angles and evaluated each solution based on soundness of strategy.
“I was pretty surprised at the amount of data provided when I first opened up the case,” Lai noted, “Usually the cases I was familiar with were slightly more open ended, but this was a welcome change.”
For the team, the final presentation of their work was a highlight of the competition. “We definitely had to rework the way in which we presented to fit the virtual format, so we really had to focus on delivering our points as clearly as possible given we didn’t have the benefit of a physical stage,” Lai said.
Since winning the 2020 Media Scholars case competition, Lai has begun working as an Analyst for an investment bank and runs a small consulting business with a partner, part-time.
