PRAM

The PRAM Mississippi Beach chapter honors the achievements of its members with the Rex Kelly Professional Achievement Award.
The recipient of the annual award becomes a candidate for the state-level Professional Achievement Award given by the Public Relations Association of Mississippi at its annual conference.
The award is named in honor of the chapter’s first president Rex Kelly, director of corporate communications for Mississippi Power, who received the first award in 2001.

Latest Recipient

Kurt Brautigam, APR, is the distinguished lecturer in public relations and associate director of the University of Southern Mississippi School of Mass Communication and Journalism, Brautigam, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communications at Southern Miss, also is principal of KRB Communications, a public relations consulting business. He previously served as manager of external communication for Mississippi Power and has overseen public, media and community relations activities for several other companies and civic organizations in south Mississippi.

Past Recipients

The PRAM Mississippi Beach chapter has awarded scholarships to public relations students at the Gulf Coast campus of the University of South Mississippi since 2001. A second scholarship for students at other universities was established in 2006 to expand the chapter’s support of public relations education on the coast. The USM scholarship is given in memory of Thomas V. Fredian, a founding member, senior practitioner and chapter president who died in 1999.

2008 Scholarship Application Information:
Do you know a promising PR student who deserves some financial aid from PRAM?
Among the qualifications, applicants must be a resident of Harrison or Hancock County, be entering their junior or senior year of college, and have declared PR or a related field as their major course of study. In addition to the application form, they also need to submit a transcript, letters of reference, resume and an essay about why they’ve chosen to study public relations. A recipient will be chosen by the board’s scholarship committee prior to the fall semester.
Download the application materials here — Scholarship Application

Latest Recipients
Carmelita Hanshaw, recipient of the chapter’s $1,000 Thomas V. Fredian Memorial Scholarship, is a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in public relations at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast campus. Jace Ponder, recipient of a $500 scholarship, is a student at the University of Mississippi working toward a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Past Recipients