COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION & INFORMATION SCIENCES
The Rising Tide 2.0 Capital Campaign has transformed the College of Communication & Information
Sciences and strengthened our ability to prepare the next generation of communication leaders. Through
donors' generosity, C&IS has expanded opportunities for students, elevated experiential learning,
strengthened faculty support, enhanced academic programs and learning labs, and invested in the
people and resources that drive innovation and excellence. Together, we have advanced the College’s
ability to educate and inspire students across the communication, media and information spectrum. The
impact of this Campaign will be felt for generations as our students graduate better prepared to lead,
create, inform and make an extraordinary difference in their professions and communities.
LETTER FROM THE DEAN
Over the past decade, your commitment to the College of Communication & Information Sciences has helped create transformative change and more opportunities than ever before in our College’s history. The impact can be seen throughout C&IS – in our programs, research, learning environments and growing national reputation – but its greatest measure is found in the individual lives you have changed.
Through The Rising Tide 2.0 Capital Campaign, your collective support has generated more than $47 million for C&IS, strengthening our College and expanding our ability to fulfill our mission. These investments have created opportunities that will endure for generations and have positioned C&IS to continue preparing students to lead, create, inform and make an extraordinary difference in their fields and communities.
Because of you, we have recruited nationally recognized faculty and retained rising stars. We have expanded opportunities for students, advanced meaningful research and created experiences that prepare our graduates to lead. You have provided our faculty with resources to pursue important questions and groundbreaking ideas. You have also ensured our students learn about their fields and the people helping define their future.
Over the past decade, your support has strengthened our College through:
- Transformed Faculty Positions: Recruiting and retaining outstanding leaders, experts and artists
- Sustained Research Support: Advancing meaningful research and innovation across the communication, media and information landscape
- Scholarships and Experiential Learning: Creating opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to learn, discover and grow
- Expanded Access: Opening doors to a C&IS education and transformative experiences for more students
The true measure of this generosity is found in moments of discovery, connection and transformation. It is in the student whose scholarship made a college education possible. The faculty member whose research changed the way we understand our world. The experience that gave a student the confidence to pursue a dream. The graduate who left C&IS prepared to lead.
Thank you for investing in the students, faculty and ideas that define C&IS. Your generosity is helping us fulfill our mission today and will transform the future of our College for generations to come.
Brian S. Butler, PhD
Dean
College of Communication & Information Sciences
THE MOMENTUM WE BUILT
$48.3M
TOTAL RAISED
34
NEW ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIPS
7
NEW FACULTY SUPPORT
ENDOWMENTS
THE IMPACT OF RISING TOGETHER
OPENING DOORS FOR
FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS
Walking into a company in New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago can give a student a new perspective on where their education might take them. It can mean meeting an alumnus working in a field they hope to enter, asking questions of industry professionals or seeing a career they had only heard about come to life in front of them.
For first-generation students, those experiences can help make the transition from college to career feel more tangible and, through the generosity of the Hollingsworth family, more accessible.
Adam and Amy Hollingsworth support the University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences’ Industry Immersion program through the Hollingsworth Family First Generation Industry Immersion Annual Support Fund. The family’s support helps first-generation students gain experiences that let them explore professional environments and connect with people working in their fields.
“Part of the Capstone experience must be doing things, seeing things and going places that complement the classroom experience,” Adam Hollingsworth said. “That’s why our family supports the C&IS Industry Immersion program. It’s a way for students who may not otherwise have the resources to broaden their horizons and deepen their networks as they prepare for life after college.”
Through Industry Immersion opportunities, students travel to leading professional markets. There, they can step inside companies, meet professionals and C&IS alumni, and experience workplace environments firsthand.
During the 2025–2026 academic year, Industry Immersion experiences included visits to Montgomery, Alabama, and Los Angeles. A visit to the Coca-Cola facility in Montgomery gave students a firsthand look at communications within a major brand, while a visit to Los Angeles introduced students to the many ways communications intersect with film and entertainment industries. By entering these professional spaces themselves, students could ask questions, make connections and explore career possibilities beyond the classroom.
For Hamm, experiences like that demonstrate how Industry Immersion creates opportunities to learn at every stage, from students taking the initiative to make a professional connection to what they take away once they walk through the door.
“I'm a big believer that every single day presents new opportunities for us to learn and grow,” Hamm said. “Every single Industry Immersion trip, I'm taking pages of notes. Even though I'm locked into my career, I am looking to glean as much knowledge as I can from these hosts and from the experiences.”
Lindsay Blackmon, a first-generation student and senior pursuing a degree in public relations with a minor in psychology, illustrates the impact financial support for Industry Immersion can have. She attended the 2024 Los Angeles Industry Immersion experience, where she connected with an alumna who worked at PR firm Edelman.
“Because of donor support, I was able to step outside my comfort zone, explore career possibilities firsthand, and build connections that continue to impact me today,” Blackmon said. “Industry Immersion has been, without question, the most impactful program in my academic and professional journey.”
For Meadow Taylor-Marklin, a journalism major who writes for The Crimson White, an Industry Immersion experience in New York City during her freshman year helped turn possibilities into a clearer vision for her future.
“I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in Industry Immersion because it quite literally changed the trajectory of my career,” Taylor-Marklin said. “When meeting with industry professionals in New York City with Industry Immersion, specifically people at PR agencies, I was able to put myself in their shoes and imagine a career in that field and city.”
Like Blackmon, scholarships ensured she gained these valuable experiences. An external scholarship covered $1,000 of the cost, and Taylor-Marklin later received a $700 first-generation scholarship.
“Overall, because of the generosity of donors, I was only responsible for $50 and flights, which made it immensely easier to participate in the experience that had such an amazing impact on my life personally, professionally and academically,” Taylor-Marklin said.
For Blackmon and Taylor-Marklin, Industry Immersion offered more than a visit to a professional market. It helped them build relationships and develop a clearer picture of what life after college could look like.
The Hollingsworth Family First Generation Industry Immersion Annual Support Fund will grow these opportunities for C&IS students.
THE HOLLE CENTER:
SHAPING THE FUTURE OF STORYTELLING
Housed within Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, adjacent to the Digital Media Center, the Holle Center for Communication Arts has become a leading incubator and creative space shaping the future of 21st-century nonfiction storytelling.
The Holle Family Foundation made a $10 million gift in 2019 to establish the center to honor the life and legacy of Brig. Gen. Everett Hughes Holle, an alumnus of the College of Communication and Information Sciences. The Holle Center serves as a collaborative hub for critical thinking, ethical storytelling and community engagement.
Ansley Greer, an alumna of the College of Communication and Information Sciences, served as an intern at The Holle Center for Communication Arts.
Ansley Greer, an alumna of the College of Communication and Information Sciences, served as an intern at The Holle Center for Communication Arts.
Today, the impact of that investment continues through the opportunities the Holle Center provides not only to students but also to faculty, staff and the creative community at C&IS.
Leading that work is Dr. Robin M. Boylorn, Holle Endowed Chair and executive director of the Holle Center for Communication Arts. A leading scholar in interpersonal communication, critical and cultural studies, and creative qualitative research, Boylorn has built her career around the power of personal narrative and storytelling to illuminate lived experiences.
A keen understanding of storytelling informs her leadership of the Holle Center and its emphasis on creating work that is both meaningful and attentive to the people whose experiences are being shared.
For Boylorn, what distinguishes the Holle Center is both the environment it creates and the way it approaches storytelling. Designed with innovation and inspiration in mind, the Center serves as a place where storytelling crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.
“The Holle Center is more than a hub for narrative inquiry; it is an interdisciplinary incubator where storytelling serves as a method of research, creative practice, and public engagement,” Boylorn said.
Boylorn said the Center carries that legacy forward by prioritizing the professional development of students while nurturing their creativity, curiosity and sense of possibility.
Through public lectures, storytelling events, workshops and other programs and partnerships, the Center also creates connections between campus and the broader community.
Student Impact in Action
One of the clearest ways the Holle Center prepares students for life beyond UA is through its internship program. Student interns gain work experience and build their portfolios while contributing to Center initiatives and developing their own storytelling projects. They also have opportunities to work with renowned artists and scholars brought to campus through the Center and participate in creative media innovation labs.
Some of the most valuable lessons emerge when those projects do not go according to plan. During one student-led project, interns developed a story around an individual they planned to interview. When that person became unavailable, the students faced a choice: abandon the idea or find another way to tell it.
Two interns took the lead, approaching the original idea from a different perspective and developing a new plan. Working together, they drew on one another’s strengths and ultimately carried the revised project forward. Boylorn said the experience demonstrated the students’ tenacity, professionalism and resilience while teaching an important lesson that extends well beyond the Center: there is more than one way to tell a story.
“I believe in the power of stories to bring people together across differences and to highlight the ways we are more alike than we are different,” Boylorn said.
One example of that belief in action is a yearlong project led by the Center’s inaugural artist laureate in residence, Dr. Zun Lee. A visiting scholar and internationally recognized photographer and visual storyteller, Lee brought extensive experience in using photography to explore personal narratives and community experiences. His numerous honors include a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2018 Knight Foundation grant. In 2019, he served as an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Practitioner in Residence.
Working with student interns and community members, Lee compiled personal family photographs and the stories behind them for
. The project demonstrates the Center’s commitment to creating space for people to share their own stories while giving students experience helping preserve and present the stories of others.
A Lasting Legacy
Brigadier General Everett Hughes Holle was a distinguished University of Alabama alumnus whose career and life reflected a deep dedication to communication, leadership, service and excellence. His values now live on through the Holle Center for Communication Arts, where students build legacies of their own through creative communication and storytelling.