The NASA Project

Public relations students from the Cronkite School work closely with NASA on developing strategic communication plans for the space agency. In both 2004 and 2005, Cronkite PR students - led by Associate Professor Fran Matera - won the Grand Prize in the NASA Means Business national collegiate competition.

The “ASPIRE” team (Arizona Students Presenting Interesting Research to Everyone) is made up of students from the Cronkite School and the Art Institute of Phoenix. The team’s previous campaigns and accompanying public service announcements have run on KAET-TV and NASA-TV and have been featured at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.

The competition’s objective is to develop a strategic communication and education plan for NASA, highlighted by signature video, radio, print and Internet promotional productions.

“NASA plans to incorporate innovations from (the students’) work into its emerging strategic communication strategy and evaluate it against other leading concepts being developed for NASA-TV and elsewhere,” according to the NASA Means Business.

Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Stauffer Hall A 231, P.O. Box 871305, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287-1305 | 480.965.5011 phone | 480.965.7041 fax