Meet the 2015 Jo Caldwell Meyer Scholarship Recipients

Each year Women Communicators of Austin (WCA) awards scholarships to deserving full-time undergraduate students studying communications at a Central Texas college or university. At Banner Brunch on May 2nd we will be awarding Chelsea Cua and Alanis King with the 2015 Jo Caldwell Meyer scholarships. Get to know our two scholarship recipients better below.

 

Chelsea Cua

Chelsea Cua is a Houston native and currently a senior at Texas State University. Her expected graduation date is December 2015. She is majoring in public relations (PR) with a minor in business administration. Her love for PR came from her childhood interests in a variety of extracurricular activities ranging from sports to performing arts. She has a wide range of interests, especially singing, which became a challenge for her when she was choosing her major her sophomore year. She chose PR because she felt it was her calling specifically and because of the wide range of industries she can work in within the field.

Once she chose her major, she became involved in many mass communication organizations including Bobcat Promotions, WCA and Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSA). Throughout college, she has been heavily involved in these organizations leading her to move into officer positions.

Her proudest accomplishments occurred last semester when she became president of two organizations, vice president of another organization, mentored 80 freshmen, worked an internship and two jobs, all while making the dean’s list every semester since her freshman year. Although it was a lot to take on, she reminded herself since it only benefits her future. Today, Chelsea has gained a passion for the healthcare industry because of her direct experience from family members. She hopes to mesh together her two passions: to work in a healthcare and the PR industry, whether it is in-house or at an agency.

 

Alanis King

Alanis King is a College Station native and currently a first-year journalism major at the University of Texas at Austin (UT). Her expected graduation date is December 2017. Her passion for motorsports reporting has set a path toward her ultimate career goal of becoming a television reporter in the sports industry, with either FOX Sports or NBC Sports. One of her foremost accomplishments thus far is maintaining a 4.0 GPA — which qualifies her for the University Honors List and Moody College of Communication Dean’s List — while still managing time for outside media work for websites and magazines, and at events such as the annual Snowball Derby and X Games Austin. In

April of 2015, she added NASCAR at Texas Motor Speedway to her annual list. At UT, she is involved with Texas Student Television (TSTV), which enables her to branch into television reporting on a variety of sports and gain hands-on experience. She gets to anchor at times or broadcast at local sporting events. When Alanis is not busy with schoolwork or reporting for TSTV, she is a part-time fitness instructor at UT Recreational Sports. She is also an instructor for Aerofit Health & Fitness Centers in College Station, where she was honored with the “Group Exercise Instructor of the Year” award. When asked how she manages her schoolwork, fitness instruction, and reporting all at the same time, Alanis says “I find a process that works for me and implement it.”

 

The WCA scholarship fund is named after Jo Caldwell Meyer who was a treasured community leader and the national executive secretary of Theta Sigma Phi, the professional society for women in communication, for 24 years.

Jo began her work at the University of Texas School of Journalism as an administrative assistant and served as executive assistant of the School of Communication until she retired in 1965. Jo passed away Thursday, December 27, 2001, at the age of 91. She was truly an inspiration to women in the field of communications, and it is highly appropriate that this scholarship bear her name. WCA dedicated the scholarship in her name in the spring of 2002.

Since it was established  in 1989 the Jo Caldwell Meyer scholarship fund has supported more than 30 Central Texas students with more than $45,000 in aid for college tuition, books and other academic needs.