This year's awareness campaigns will stretch across the remainder of February and throughout April, building on the success of last year's campaign. Viewers can visit here to see all three videos on the main university website.
“Last year’s campaign was successful in enhancing the perception of St. Thomas as an institution with academic excellence across Minnesota," said Kymm Martinez, St. Thomas' chief marketing officer. "The campaign also improved value perceptions especially among Generation X, who are the parents of our prospective students. It’s exciting to tell St. Thomas stories in a TV format because we can reach a large population with an emotional message. This year we’re telling new stories on TV, as well as creating longer-form 'Behind the Story' videos, which allow us to get even more in depth.”
The first spot features Enzo Vinholi, a sophomore undergraduate student in the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship who has combined his mind for business and gaming to develop a virtual reality company that uses virtual reality to help keep memories alive for Alzheimer's patients.
The second spot features Fatoumata Jaiteh, a senior undergraduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences who is doing something about issues with maternity care in The Gambia: Her family is from the African nation, and on a trip there two summers ago she recognized an opportunity to apply the knowledge she has gained as a biology of global health student toward developing solutions. She created a nonprofit and is helping empower Gambian women with pre- and postnatal education.
The third spot features three School of Engineering students - Austin Lorch ’18, Amanda Tenhoff ’18 and Milad Audi ’19 - who have worked with assistant professor Tom Secord to create something revolutionary: an implantable device that would capture energy from the beating of a heart and turn it into electrical power to run a device such as a pacemaker.
Faculty, students and staff are encouraged to share the videos, images and stories as they appear on social media and in the Newsroom, and use the hashtag #WeAreTommies.
