Chicago, IL (May 24, 2021) – 9Rooftops Marketing is pleased to announce a deeper commitment to transforming human potential with an investment in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Camp ADventure, hosted by the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture.
“We are thrilled to return to Camp ADventure in 2021 and play a larger role with the students and mentors who are committed to building on the bedrock of diverse perspectives to propel our industry forward,” said Kevin Meany, CEO at 9Rooftops Marketing. “We believe in the power of perspective and what it does to fuel creativity.”
Camp ADventure, which is June 1 to July 16, is a free advertising internship and creative competition that attracts current college students and recent graduates from across the country. The six-week program teaches campers about developing an advertising campaign, building a portfolio, and networking with industry professionals. Campers work on interdisciplinary teams and gain hands-on, real-life advertising experience.
New this year, 9Rooftops is partnering with Camp ADventure to support development of new and more inclusive programming. The additional support provided by 9Rooftops will enable VCU to add a focused section of industry learning based on principles of inclusion. This track of programming offers student campers from non-traditional recruiting locations, such as community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities, access to the latest research on bias and decision-making, marketing planning tools, education resources, and industry mentors, which they otherwise may not have access to as part of their current education plan.
In addition, volunteers from 9Rooftops will work side by side with competition teams, offering one-to-one mentoring, preparing skill-building workshops, hosting mock job interviews for agency roles, and serving as panel audiences for competition team presentations.
By the end of the summer competition, more students will be able to speak the industry language, demonstrate strong skills in sophisticated marketing tools, and create compelling ideas and campaign assets that demonstrate their passion and ability for a job in this field. All of which enables 9Rooftops to continue to build sustainable, diverse pipelines of agency talent.
As a Camp ADventure Leader and an experienced architect, Assistant Professor Jessica Collins says she is proud of the program’s evolution and what she can now offer students in internship credits as part of an official VCU class. “There is no better reward than to feel like you belong to something greater than yourself, and that is why we have such deep support from industry and camp partners, including Capital One, Fable Branding, Lewis Media Partners and Dionne Consulting, as well as the exciting new partnership with 9Rooftops,” Collins shared. “For six weeks this summer, we are all advertising agency employees doing work we feel compelled to do, to do good in the world. We all want to belong to that.”
About 9Rooftops Marketing
9Rooftops Marketing, which is headquartered in Chicago, IL, is a bold, integrated marketing agency built for brands who need results now. Enhanced with an in-house, multimedia content studio, a data-driven health division, and a full-service branded media practice, 9Rooftops is known for breakthrough creative that gets results. With offices in nine cities and more than 250 employees, 9Rooftops uses data-fueled strategies that help brands in an array of categories rise above the competition. That means clients get culturally relevant, high-performance creative solutions that generate energy, action, and revenue — with the kind of speed that the market demands.
About the Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture
The Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture (formerly the School of Mass Communications), founded in 1978, is one of the largest units of the Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Humanities and Sciences. The Robertson School offers a professional undergraduate and graduate education—not just training— in an environment that values the strong foundation of liberal arts and sciences so necessary for professional communicators. We are one of only 118 select journalism and mass communication programs accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. The Robertson School inspires and empowers students to be transformative media innovators while continuing to be a thought leader in a changing communication environment. The School accomplishes its mission through immersive teaching, quality research and professional scholarship.
