Moody College of Communication’s The Lab is more like working within a strategic communication agency as opposed to a typical course. Here, advertising and public relations students get real experience and produce outcomes that get real exposure.

That up close and personal approach is by design Liza Lewis says, executive director of The Lab and associate professor in the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations.

“By senior year, our students are working in teams just like they would in an agency,” Lewis said. “It’s hard work, but it’s real work.”

This month, as part of State Farm’s Good Neighbor Month, concepts created by Moody College of Communication’s The Lab students will hit State Farm’s official social media channels.

The Spring 2025 The Lab cohort was paired with State Farm, who issued a challenge: how to connect in a meaningful way with the newest generation of drivers, homeowners, and renters. The students embraced the challenge and produced a fully integrated campaign for the company including strategies, media, PR and creative concepts.

Other students in the Spring cohort were tasked with a challenge closer to home - developing a campaign for the Texas Athletics marketing team. Caleigh Doucet was one of those students.

When Doucet started her academic journey at Moody College, she wanted to follow a career path that allowed her to embrace her creativity but one that also had data she could see and use.

“I’m a first-gen college student, so a lot of majors were really confusing to me,” she said. “When I discovered the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations, it seemed to have the perfect intersection of my interests.”

She feels she made the right choice, deciding to funnel her passions into public relations.

Now a Moody College graduate, she said that the very real experience she gained working in The Lab was one of the highlights of her academic journey.

“I’ve gotten all the hands-on experience that you can imagine,” Doucet said during her final semester. “Everything we do here is collaborative. The Lab has given me the chance to serve real clients at the companies we’re working with, which may range from recent college grads to c-suite executives.”

Doucet served as the director of her team’s strategy department. Ellie Plummer worked alongside Doucet. She acted as the team’s Vice President and had the somewhat daunting task of presenting the entire campaign to Texas Athletics at the end of the semester.

“Pitching to Texas Athletics was nerve-racking but also extremely exciting,” Plummer said. “I think that nervous energy really hyped me up for the presentation. Once we got started, all the nerves melted away. I felt so confident in the work that we had produced.”

The Lab’s previous client list includes other major brands like Dell Technologies, as well as the Austin-based medical scrubs company Create Amor. Founder Matthew Vuckovich was so impressed by the students’ creativity and research that he credited them with developing the brand’s slogan, Feel Loved.

“They nailed it,” Vuckovich said. “They backed up their ideas with data and really understood our audience. Any agency would benefit from having them.”

For Doucet and Plummer, the experience was transformative, not just professionally, but personally. Both cited Moody professors as key mentors in their journey.

“Natalie Brown Devlin is a really great professor,” Doucet said. “She has been a great mentor to me senior year in all my capstone projects. That’s a trend among a lot of my professors. They're always willing to help you network, help you with your projects, whatever it may be. Their doors are always open.”

Plummer says that James Dalthorp and Natalie Tindall were her biggest inspirations.

“I've been able to go to him with my struggles and discuss my ideas and he's been a great resource in helping me foster those,” Plummer said. “Professor Tindall was one of the professors who got me to change my mindset about PR.”

Plummer said that she wasn’t sure that public relations was something she initially wanted to pursue but Tindall helped her find her place within the field. Like Doucet, Plummer graduated from Moody College in spring 2025, each of them had jobs lined up afterward.

“I think that's one thing that I will take into the working world,” Plummer said. “Building these projects and seeing them come to life and having them be used in a real-world manner has been a great experience, and I am excited to see how that translates into my career.”