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Dage Girault Albert ’21 has become the first Lycoming College student to earn an undergraduate scholarship from the LAGRANT Foundation. Girault Albert is one 30 undergraduate students nationwide to earn the scholarship from the foundation.
“I was pretty happy and surprised,” he said while on a bus to his home in Newark, N.J., from his summer internship with Americorps in New York City. “The focus of the scholarship is on public relations, marketing, advertising, and communications. One of the questions on the scholarship application was to pretend you work for a company that sells a product — a cooking device meant for college students. I had to get college students to buy the product and tell about how I would reach them and what steps would I take to get them attracted to the product in the first place.”
Girault Albert, a corporate communication major from Newark, N.J., will receive a $2,500 scholarship. In normal years, the scholarship comes with a trip to New York City, where the scholarship winners participate in career-building activities. Due to COVID-19, Girault Albert said that the LAGRANT Foundation did more things virtually, including a Zoom call with all of the scholarship winners. The winners have also found each other in a GroupMe chat, as well as on LinkedIn.
“There were some other steps to get us in touch with other agencies,” Girault Albert said. “We were still able to build relationships with partner companies.”
Girault Albert said that Lycoming’s corporate communication program, especially the help of Professor Emeritus Eugene Donati, was key not just in getting the scholarship, but also in developing his career aspirations.
“Professor Donati was my academic counselor,” he said. “I went in one day and was looking for career advice and to pick his mind. He recommended I apply for the LAGRANT Foundation and it sounded like a good opportunity so I took his advice and I got it. I think the work that I have done with Professor Donati helped me get the scholarship. His class helped me because I was able to see how people target and get stuff out there to specific groups. I really applied it to the questions on the scholarship.”
As he heads into his senior year, Girault Albert said that the combination of his classes at Lycoming, the LAGRANT Foundation programming, and his internship have helped drive home what he wants to do in the future.
“I want to be a communications director or manager,” he said. “I want to be the person who helps craft a company’s communications and public image. I want to be the person that makes sure a company doesn’t put out offensive content or statements. That’s what I want to do in my career.”
The LAGRANT Foundation’s mission is to increase the number of ethnic minorities in the fields of advertising, marketing, and public relations by providing scholarships, career and professional development workshops, mentors and internships to African American/Black, Alaska Native/Native American, Asian American/Pacific Islander and Hispanic/Latino undergraduate and graduate students. The foundation’s goal is to provide minorities the necessary resources and tools not commonly available to many minorities entering the fields of advertising, marketing and public relations.