A University of Alabama senior was selected as one of the American Advertising Federation’s Most Promising Multicultural Students of 2021.
Hanna Fridriksson, a Mobile native, is one of 50 college students from across the country chosen to participate in the Most Promising Multicultural Students program, a premier event put on by the AAF to give traditionally underrepresented, multicultural students an opportunity to network with and learn from top advertising, marketing and media professionals.
The program is part of an AAF initiative to promote diversity, equity and inclusion within the advertising industry.
“It’s a really great program, and I’m thankful for the opportunity,” said Fridriksson, who is in UA’s accelerated master’s program in advertising and public relations. “The advertising world is a bit homogenous, in a sense. It’s really nice to see that there are programs trying to push back on that and add diversity into the industry because it’s really important for different perspectives to be represented.”
Students were selected for the program by a panel of leading industry professionals, including representatives from Apple, Google, L’Oreal and Twitter, among others.
The four-day event, held last year in New York City, will be fully virtual this year and run Jan. 26-29, 2021.
“I’ve been fortunate to build some relationships from a program I did last summer,” said Fridriksson, who participated in a virtual summer fellowship with the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Multicultural Advertising Intern Program. “With the Most Promising program, I’d love to grow my network and create relationships with some new people in the industry, and hopefully land a really great internship or job for this summer.”
During her time at UA, Fridriksson has been highly involved with the Capstone Advertising Federation, UA’s chapter of AAF, and has been on the executive board since her sophomore year. She began as secretary and now serves as president.
In addition, she serves on the student executive council for the College of Communication and Information Sciences and is a member of UA’s Ad Team.
Last semester, Fridriksson studied abroad in an exchange program with Kedge Business School in Bordeaux, France, which ended early due to COVID-19.
Fridriksson is set to graduate from UA in May 2022 with both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Upon graduation, she plans to move to a big city and work for an advertising agency to gain experience and build her portfolio; she dreams of eventually working for a large beauty brand, such as Sephora.