Real Clients, Real Work, Real Life

The real world is a scary place full of deadlines, conflict, and hard conversations. I know; I’ve been there. When I worked as an advertising copywriter, these types of obstacles are just part of the daily routine.

I wish that when I was in college, I had an opportunity to learn what the real world was so I could be prepared for life after graduation. Now, I am proud to say that I’m able to give strategic communications students that exact opportunity through my work with Roxo, TCU’s student advertising and public relations agency.

While Roxo is staffed by students, it’s as real world as it gets, complete with an Executive Creative Director and CEO (that’s me) and a hierarchy of leadership and accounts teams — just like any professional advertising or public relations agency.

Unlike professional agencies, Roxo provides a safe space for students to fail. Yes, fail. Failure is one of the best gifts I can give my students because it gives them the opportunity to learn and improve.

Photo courtesy of Roxo

This program, housed in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication, is experiential and service-based learning combined. Students create real work for real clients in the community. A portion of the work we do each semester is pro-bono and directly benefits a local nonprofit. Since Roxo’s inception over 10 years ago, the agency has donated approximately $50,000 worth of work to the Fort Worth community.

This work for local nonprofits creates positive social change in Fort Worth, and it changes the students who do the projects; the action of working and learning to understand poverty, education inequality, hunger, and mental health gives students more than a letter grade ever will. It challenges and changes the way they think and see the world.

We also work for paying clients who expect a high return on their investment, which puts more pressure on the students. This is that real-world experience. Sure, we mess up, but that’s part of the process. We grow together with clients like Cook Children’s Health Care System, MHMR of Tarrant County, The Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation, Near Southside, Inc., Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, Project 4031, and Leadership Fort Worth, just to name a few.

Each academic year, Roxo works with roughly a dozen clients. The agency accepts about 27 students each semester after a rigorous application process. After they’re accepted, the students are placed into four different account teams, with positions like public relations manager, creative director, copywriter, designer, and social media manager. The Roxstars, as the students are known, earn three credit hours and a stipend at the end of the semester.

Photo courtesy of Roxo

When I took over the agency about five years ago, I decided I wanted to run it as a social enterprise; we put mission over profit and integrate the greater good in all we do. Part of that mission and a piece of our corporate social responsibility agenda is mental health. We partnered with the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation to raise money during the pandemic to support the foundation’s mission to prevent suicide, and we dedicate a lot of time and energy creating an agency culture that proves we really care about our students and our community.

Roxo has a long list of happy clients. “I’ve had the privilege of working with Roxo… and I’m always blown away by their energy, creativity, and professionalism,” said Kim Brown, Public Relations Manager for Cook Children’s. “Roxo has helped us think outside of the box and take our campaigns to new heights, especially with the Joy Campaign. They took a personal interest in our goal to reduce youth suicide attempts and were completely invested in our mission. We are so grateful for their hard work and commitment to helping Cook Children’s.”

If we, as leaders and industry professionals, take care of our people first, those people — be they students or seasoned professionals — will gladly put in the hard work with us. Not for the agency. Not for the institution. But alongside the person who’s shown such care for them. That’s the power of developing and nurturing social capital. And I hope this empathetic style of leadership is carried on as my students become the next generation of advertising agency professionals.

I’m grateful to the Department of Strategic Communication at TCU, the Bob Schieffer College of Communication, and clients like Cook Children’s for giving our students the real-world experience they need and the opportunity to lead with empathy and bold creativity.

Photo courtesy of Roxo