Grady Students Create Campaign for Active Learning Summit

During the fall semester of 2025, nine Grady College students in professor Sabrena Deal’s ADPR 5741: Integrated ADPR Campaigns course were tasked with developing a comprehensive public relations and advertising campaign for the University’s annual Active Learning Summit. This year, the Summit was held at UGA’s Center for Continuing Education and Hotel on February 27 and 28. 

To underscore the importance of active learning and its history, Leah Langford Carmichael, director of the Summit and client contact for the students, elaborated on the history and background of the event. 

What is UGA’s Active Learning Summit?

The Active Learning Summit grew out of UGA’s Active Learning Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), a university wide initiative tied to accreditation that focuses on improving how students learn in the classroom. Beyond the formal structure, though, motivation was much more human. 

Across campus, instructors were already experimenting with creative, student-centered teaching strategies—group work, real‑world projects, discussion‑based classes. The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) has created spaces where faculty could share and refine those ideas with support from instructional experts. 

What was missing was a way to celebrate that work and promote it across UGA and beyond. The Active Learning Summit was created to bring what was happening in pockets of campus into the spotlight, giving faculty, staff and students a chance to highlight what active learning looks like in practice and to build a shared teaching and learning culture that values creativity, collaboration and authentic student engagement. 

Unlike traditional conferences, the Summit models active learning in action—through discussions, demonstrations, games, hands-on activities and field experiences—encouraging faculty to experiment, share works‑in‑progress and learn together rather than simply present polished results.  

The Campaign

Over the course of the semester, the students developed research, communication and advertising strategies, design concepts and social media deliverables to define and deliver clear objectives for the upcoming Summit and those following. The students divided their team into three focus areas: PR and outreach, social and design and internal communications. 

The campaign objectives include increasing media coverage, social media engagement and diversity of participants for the Summit. Objectives would be met by building momentum for the event and maximizing attendance. The team focused on capturing insights from audience groups to understand their media habits, behaviors and motivations. The three teams then proceeded to create mock deliverables like promotional emails, media trackers and LinkedIn posts that captured messaging tactics, use measurable checkpoints and university-driven initiatives to drive cohesive implementation and meet goals. 

The nature of the course challenges students to operate in practices that mirror a real agency. With the guidance of senior lecturer and instructor Sabrena Deal, students engaged in modern and traditional media tactics to create a successful campaign.  

When Deal approached the Office of Active Learning about collaboration, she had a clear vision of how her students could get involved and gain skills and perspective from such a project. “I saw the opportunity for our students to have measurable outcomes from their work for the semester because of the alignment with the event,” Deal said. “I also saw the opportunity for them to work within a well-defined brand and to consider how to reach audiences they aren’t a part of like professors and academic professionals.”  

Nhi Nguyen-Le, a PR student who served as the visual design lead and branding specialist for the campaign, reflected on her experience working with the team and navigating her role. “Working with my teammates last semester was such a rewarding experience because we operated at such a high level of organization,” Nguyen-Le said. “Each member contributed creative and thoughtful ideas and was extremely dedicated to approaching their responsibilities.”  

An integral characteristic of the team was the ability of each member to rely on and support one another. A contributing factor to this being adaptability—coming from the understanding of each other’s strengths, as it built mutual respect and enforced the quality of their work. Diana Calderon, the engagement and outreach coordinator for the campaign, said her experience was “unlike any team or class project I have participated in.” Working with her teammates highlighted the importance of shared success and individual impact by seeing the beauty in their differences across talent, personality and passion.  

Deal and Carmichael expressed pleasure and satisfaction with the students and their work and this year’s Summit was a success. “The final product looked like a polished, professional portfolio and the overall experience felt less like a big class project and more like something we could genuinely build on for years to come,” Carmichael said. “I was especially struck by the professionalism of the team—how proactively they communicated, paid close attention to client details, asked thoughtful questions and incorporated feedback throughout the process. They clearly saw themselves as partners and co-creators in the work rather than simply completing an assignment.”  

Deal added, “We received feedback that the students exceeded expectations in nearly every way. The students developed strategies that increased awareness of the event and met the needs of the client. I was so proud to see their work being implemented. The event was operating at a whole new level and we were a significant part of bringing that about.”  

A large part of the campaign’s success is attributed to the students’ storytelling abilities, bringing forth the spirit of the Summit. Dr. Leah Carmichael noted, “The students didn’t just explain what the Summit is – they communicated why it matters.” Carmichael added, “In doing so, the campaign team demonstrated a strong awareness of higher education audiences and the nuances of faculty work, which is not easy to capture.”  

In addition, the students designed an intentional transition to support the Office of Active Learning well after their semester-long project was over. This innovation directly supports the Summit’s proactive efforts to ensure its long-lasting impression. 

By the end, the students walked away with lifelong lessons that will guide them on journeys in both their personal and professional lives. Team members understand active learning and its significance, how to run a campaign and real-world strategic communications tactics and how to create traditional and digital assets that complement project goals. With tangible deliverables such as creative briefs, email proposals, registration graphics and showcasing photoshoots for content, the students also gained intangible insights that are essential in collaborative work and self-growth.  

“Every challenge we faced was a learning opportunity,” Nguyen-Le said.  

Lilian Arnall added, “This campaign gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to lead and manage something important from beginning to end.”  

“I have always believed that conflict can be a catalyst for change, but I did not fully recognize the strength of my own conflict resolution skills,.” Calderon concluded. This campaign also taught me the value of grit and the understanding that failure is often part of the path to success. At the beginning, I was timid, but by the end my confidence had grown and I was eager to seek feedback and continuously improve my work.” 

Author: Anyi Morfaw, abm40431@uga.edu