Dear Moody College Families,

Founded in 2017, the Moody College Family Network serves as a membership organization that provides families of Moody College students with access to premier college events, enhanced communication on college programs and initiatives, a platform for mentoring, and parent-to-parent networking.

This annual report celebrates the philanthropic history of our Family Network program from inception to present day and highlights the profound impact that gifts made toward our college and program have had on our community. The growth and success of the Network is possible because of parents, grandparents and guardians like you who care deeply about the success of your student, and that ripples out across our college to elevate the undergraduate experience across the board - from freshman year and beyond.

We are so grateful for your membership and investment in the Moody College of Communication. Thank you for your support!

Gifts to the Family Network

As of April 3rd, 2023, our families have committed $778,846 in gifts toward the Family Network since the inception of the program in Fall 2017.

Every year we designate a portion of the membership gifts to increase the value of the Moody College Family Network Endowed Excellence fund, which will exist at the college in perpetuity and provide scholarships for Moody College students. This year's allocation boosted the endowment to $172,570, and we have awarded six Family Network Scholarships since the fund went live in 2020!

Other significant distributions include investment of Family Network membership gifts into Moody College Undergraduate Support, which winds up supporting many different areas like the Career Center and our departments. Since 2017 we have distributed $178,055 to causes across the college. A more detailed breakdown of how your support has impacted our students through the funding of undergraduate causes around our college is available later in this report.

In the spring of 2020, we invested $40,000 in our Moody Student Emergency Fund to immediately help students in crisis due to COVID-19. The Moody College of Communication Student Emergency Fund was created with the mission of supporting students through various emergencies. We are aware that a financial contribution cannot fix all of the unique issues that a student may be facing, but we believe the emergency funds we are able to provide can help students get back on a path of success.

Administrative Fees & Events ensure that we are able to keep the Family Network running and put on events for our parents and their students here in Austin and abroad, which allows us to recruit new families and welcome those who are joining us for the first time.

Finally, our extra discretionary funds held by the Family Network account allow us to make significant investments in needs that arise during the years that we otherwise wouldn't have anticipated budgeting for -- like the Student Emergency Fund in 2020. We look forward to using more of these funds to help Moody College students as opportunities arise.

Undergraduate Support

To date the Moody College Family Network has supported our undergraduate programs with $178,055. This past academic year, the program allocated $50,000, split between our Office of Undergraduate Education and each department (Communication Studies, Radio-Television-Film and Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences), school (Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations and the School of Journalism and Media) and degree program (Communication & Leadership). Our total shared with our academic units since the Family Network's inception is $88,340.

In past years we have allocated funds to aid the Moody Office of Undergraduate Education with their annual programming, which focuses on broad student support and well being within the college as a whole. Our total shared with that Office as of this year is $28,140.

The Moody College Family Network has funded the Career Center to help them host an innovative and advanced Talent Insights career assessment workshop. This workshop was offered to 150 Moody College students.

Several small programs have benefited from Family Network funding: The portion of funds to the Writing Support Program in 2019 allowed for the hiring of new mentors to help students thrive with their written projects. $8,000 allocated to the Communication Council Study Abroad Excellence Fund helped get this student led endowment to the funding finish line, establishing it at the college to help students pay for fees related to Study Abroad. Communication Council, the college's governing body for undergraduate student affairs, received funding that allows them to host more community events for their fellow students.

Funds in Action

In 2022-2023 each major department at the Moody College of Communication received $7,140 to use toward student experiences.

Communication Studies

This year the Department of Communication Studies used their funding to support Communication Studies Week, held April 3-6, 2023. Communication Studies (CMS) Week is an annual event held each spring. It is the primary way that we celebrate Communication Studies undergraduate majors and minors and make sure they are aware of various opportunities associated with the department. We also use this event to help recruit new students to our programs.

This year’s CMS Week kicked off with pizza, prizes, and presentations by some of our most outstanding faculty. They held teaching demos to give students something to look forward to before registering for their fall classes. That kickoff event also featured prizes and other video content out on the CMA Plaza. On Tuesday the 4th, current and prospective students were encouraged to join in for ice cream, live trivia, and all sorts of information about student clubs, off-campus programs, and exciting new courses/tracks in the Communication Studies degree for CMS Community Day.

The week's programming also featured several events related to careers and jobs—highlighted by a speed networking event mid-week with other students and recruiters. They wrapped up the week with an information session for interested transfer students and high school students. As part of that final day, they had free pizza prior to a showcase performance by the UT Debate and Texas Speech teams.

"We are so grateful for this funding, because we could not even begin to host this event without the generous financial support of the Moody College Family Network." - Dr. Craig R. Scott, Chair, Department of Communication Studies

Journalism and Media

The School of Journalism and Media used this year's funds to pay for expenses related to a project hosted by Professor Kathleen McElroy that allowed students to do a social media take-over for two local tennis tournaments. Experiential learning is a cornerstone of many of our programs, allowing students to have opportunities with hands on work while they are receiving a world class education in an ever-changing world of new media.

Radio-Television-Film

Radio-Television-Film (RTF) used their funds from the Family Network to cover the program fees related with participation in the University of Texas in New York (UTNY) for two students attending in summer 2023 who otherwise would not have been able to afford the experience. One of the RTF-UTNY student awardees is a General Management Intern at Bespoke Theatricals. Bespoke Theatricals provides general management services for Broadway, Off-Broadway and touring productions. Current and past productions include: MJ the Musical, Beetlejuice, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Broadway & San Francisco) and Tina. The other RTF-UTNY student awardee is working as a Training Multimedia Assistant at Sirius XM, the streaming radio company.

The UTNY program can help jumpstart a student's career by allowing them to work full time at an internship within the industry they are interested in working in while taking classes at night to keep their degree on track.

Advertising & Public Relations

This year, the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations used the Family Network funding to increase our engagement in student competitions. Students participated in multiple creative award shows, the Bateman Case Study Competition, and the National Student Advertising Competition. There are often entry fees for these competitions, and the School was able to pay for multiple student entries into award shows, including the Austin AdFed Addys and the Young Ones show.

This was the first year we have had students enter the Bateman Competition. Six public relations students worked to build an information awareness campaign for NewsGuard as well as help Latino young adults and college students understand how misinformation and disinformation are hurting communities and democracy. If you would like to read more about the competition, we have a story about our students time at the Bateman Competition here.

 Every year, Dr. Lisa Lewis leads a large team of students in the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). This year the client was Indeed. Our team placed 3rd overall and one of our students was awarded with Best Overall Presenter and another, who is currently the Vice President of our in-house student agency, was awarded a NSAC scholarship.

Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

The Family Network funds support professional development of our undergraduate Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) students by enabling us to sponsor their travel to national and local professional meetings like the annual meeting of the Texas Speech-Language and Hearing Association. These meetings allow them to have an opportunity to gain a broader perspective about the professions of audiology and speech-language pathology and seek critical information about future graduate studies and employment opportunities. We also use the funds to sponsor speaker events that are focused on enhancing academic experiences of undergraduate students.

These funds are also used to sponsor social events with the goal of creating a supportive community of undergraduate SLHS students. It is critical to host events like these in the context of Covid-19 pandemic and social isolation that it caused for many of our current student body.  Our undergraduate students are appreciative of these events.

Communication and Leadership

The Communication and Leadership Degree (CLD) used the Moody Family Network’s generous gift to host a Leadership Development and Networking Reception and Dinner for students in two CLD courses: Communicating for Executive Leadership and the Internship Course.

"Attending and making the most of networking opportunities at professional receptions and business dinners can be nerve wracking and anxiety fraught if one is uncomfortable or uncertain how to behave." - Dr. Minette "Meme" Drumwright, Director, Communication and Leadership Degree Program

As a pilot project, CLD worked with Ladd Flock, director of the Moody Career Services, to hire a professional coach, Randi Mays-Knapp. Ms. Mays-Knapp made presentations and provided personal coaching at a reception with mocktails and appetizers, followed by a three course, sit-down dinner.

The reception and dinner was attended by more than 30 students and five faculty members. Feedback from students and faculty was overwhelmingly positive, and they plan to repeat the event in the future. CLD also used Family Network funds to provide cookies for students on the last class day and to reorder CLD t-shirts for incoming students in Fall 2023.