Dejana Peric (ABJ '17) awarded Alfred J. Seaman Award

Written by Josh Mixon ’19

Dejana Peric (ABJ ’17) has been awarded the Alfred J. Seaman Award for best undergraduate paper on advertising and society. This is the first time a student of the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication has ever achieved this high honor.

Dejana conducted her research on modernity and advertising over the last year through UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO). CURO scholarships are primarily funded by private donations to the Center for Undergraduate Research Support Fund, which helps students like Dejana put their passions for research to work.

In addition to financial support, CURO allows students to work closely with faculty members to conduct research in any field of study offered by UGA. Engaging in faculty-mentored research makes for more successful students, and CURO scholarships provide students with opportunities to begin developing their research skills early on in their college careers.

Through CURO, Dejana was able to work alongside her mentor Jay Hamilton, head of the department of entertainment and media studies at Grady College, to develop a paper that reviewed how advertising changes as society changes.

“[Dejana] is one of the very best students I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with,” Hamilton said. “I’m so pleased that a committee of scholars and industry professionals saw, admired and rewarded all the hard work she put into it.”

Dejana said that she has always wanted to conduct her own independent research study and she is grateful to have had the opportunity to do so through CURO.

“Being recognized for the work I’ve put in the last two semesters of my college career makes the whole experience even better,” said Dejana, who graduated summa cum laude in May 2017 with a degree in advertising.

The prestigious Alfred J. Seaman Award is given by the Advertising Educational Foundation (AEF), a nonprofit foundation that brings together the worlds of advertising, marketing and media to create educational content on the subjects.

She will be honored for her achievement this summer at AEF’s Honors Night in New York City. Her work will also be considered for future educational tools created by AEF.

This article is adapted from a piece written by Katie Pilson for grady.uga.edu.