Alexis Bass and Alex Grinton enjoy rating the Super Bowl ads at the Ad Bowl III critique.

Award-winning advertising students admitted to top graduate program

Two ADDY award-winning students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications are headed to the No. 1 rated graduate program for advertising, the VCU Adcenter.

Senior advertising students Alexis Bass and Alex Grinton were recently accepted into the fall 2006 class of the VCU Adcenter, the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Mass Communication’s advertising graduate program.

The VCU Adcenter, located in Richmond, Va., is an intense, two-year program that offers a master’s in communications with concentrations in copyediting, art direction, strategic planning, creative media planning and creative brand management. Bass will be on the strategic planning track, and Grinton will be on the copyediting track.

The VCU Adcenter has an internship program that places qualified students at nationally recognized agencies during the summer between their first and second year. Past interns have produced work for Nike, Jaguar, Miller Beer and ESPN. The Adcenter also has a 95 percent job placement rate eight months after graduation and alumni in top agencies around the world including: Ogilvy & Mather, DDB and TBWA/Chiat/Day.

In addition to being accepted to a prestigious advertising program, Bass and Grinton both received ADDY awards from the Columbia Ad Club on Feb. 25. The ADDY awards are sponsored by the American Advertising Federation and honor the best in creative advertising. Bass won a gold ADDY and Grinton won three silver ADDYs.