Costa selected for Lockheed Martin's Communication Leadership Development Program

Ananda Costa, a recent graduate with a degree in public relations and a New Media certificate from Grady College, is one of the top students selected for Lockheed Martin’s two-year rotational Communication Leadership Development Program. Throughout her time in Grady College, Ananda gained valuable experience in her leadership roles including the co-director of AdPR Connection and director of outreach for TEDxUGA.

Lockheed Martin’s Communication Leadership Development Program is designed for selected individuals to gain experience and knowledge in corporate communications. Participants have the opportunity to be immersed in the world’s top advanced technology company. While completing this program, participants are encouraged to continue their education with provided tuition to obtain their master’s degree. Lockheed Martin hopes to mold future company leaders through this exclusive program.

Ananda Costa chosen for Lockheed Martin's Communications Leadership Development Program

“I am so honored to have been selected for Lockheed Martin’s Communications Leadership Development Program. Grady has a proud history of having several students participate in this prestigious initiative. In fact, I couldn’t have gone through the rigorous interview process without the encouragement of exceptional Grady professors, alumni and PRSSA. Having a strong support system of people who helped proof my application materials and provide me with program insights gave me an edge throughout the application process. I am so grateful to Grady and can’t wait to begin my Lockheed journey working with the Space team in Denver soon," said Ananda.

We look forward to supporting Ananda in her future success in Lockheed Martin’s Communication Leadership Development Program.

Elizabeth Howard earns Lockheed Martin position

Elizabeth Howard, senior PR student 

Elizabeth Howard, a senior public relations student from Peachtree City, Ga., was one of three students in the nation selected this year for the Lockheed Martin Communications Leadership Development Program. 

Howard is the treasurer of the UGA PRSSA chapter and is chairperson of the Shop with a Bulldawg program. Lockheed Martin’s Communications Leadership Development Program (CLDP) is a two-year rotational program that involves the many areas of corporate communication, including media relations, marketing, employee communications and community relations. Lockheed Martin looks for students with “outstanding technical skills, leadership abilities and practical experience.” Howard begins the program in June.

We got the opportunity to learn more about Elizabeth, from her time at UGA with the AdPR Department to the items on her bucket list.

Outside of PRSSA and your educational requirements, what are some of your favorite things to do on UGA's campus and in Athens? Any other passions or areas of involvement?

For the past four years, I have been involved in Shop with a Bulldawg, an organization that brings the holidays to Athens through a yearly event. During my junior and senior years, I have been on the Executive Board as the Director of Event Planning and then Executive Director. This organization has truly shaped who I am as a leader, but it has also shown me what it means to work with a passion. I knew I was passionate about this organization because I noticed myself being excited about pulling all-nighters to finish the work (and believe me, I’m a huge supporter of sleep). Being able to give back to the Athens community has been incredibly rewarding, and on top of all of this, I have found a wonderful campus family that shares the same passions. Outside of campus, you can find me at Walker’s drinking a Cranberry Pear Smashing green tea, at Cine watching the latest independent film, or curled up on the couch enjoying a glass of wine with my best friends laughing over adorable pug videos or our latest dating fails.

How do you spend a typical UGA home game?

Before I could even speak, I was dressed up in a Georgia’s Bulldawg cheerleader’s uniform with my diaper sticking out on the ends, so when I became a student, bleeding red and black was second nature to me. Thankfully, I lost the diaper along the way. I love to tailgate, mostly because I love me some good tailgating food. My best friend’s family has a tailgate every Saturday right off of Myers Quad. It’s the perfect combination of college and class. My favorite tailgating food consists of a breakfast full of sausage biscuits, a lunch of pimento cheese sandwiches and an after-game snack of Georgia Bulldawg sugar cookies. My friends and I have a love-hate relationship with our stadium seats. We love good seats in the lower level student section, so each week we stand, stand some more and sit and wait for the perfect seats, but it’s all in the name of good ‘ole Georgia football.

What are some of your favorite memories or stories from your time at UGA?

I think my favorite memories and stories come from the most unexpected days. Obviously I loved GA/FL weekends, game days and Snowpocalypse festivities, but the stories that really put a smile on my face are the spontaneous moments. Sophomore year, my friends and I had a photoshoot on North Campus, and it ended in a dunking fest in Herty Fountain, and those soggy laughing moments were forever captured. As for a not-so-spontaneous trip, I traveled to Washington, D.C. last February for the PRSSA Agency Tour, and I met some of the most wonderful, hard-working girls I've ever met in my life. One night we ended up in Chinatown, and we were determined to eat the best Chinese food we could afford. We ended up in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant laughing over how messed up our orders were and the selfie the waitress took instead of our group picture. Public relations is often categorized as a competitive field, but the friendships and memories, including the homemade Pop-Tarts and over-priced wine, made for a wonderful week. Life happens in the moments that you least expect it, so make sure you have good food and really good friends to share it with.

Any Athens bucket-list items you hope to mark off before you graduate?

I definitely want to find all the bulldawgs around Athens. They each represent a small part of the town, and I think it will make for a great scrapbook. I’ve started a photo album with a few, but I know there are so many I have yet to find. I also have quite the list of restaurants that I still want to explore. However, despite my love of color-coded lists, I’ve made a promise to myself to just enjoy the time I have left here. This town has so many wonderful attributes and trinkets just waiting to be explored, so in the next four months, my bucket list is a lot less of ‘to-do’ items and more of ‘go explore and enjoy’ items.

What else is on your bucket list?

What’s life without an epic bucket list? I definitely want to skydive, but to make it even more epic; I would love to skydive in New Zealand over the hills where The Lord of Rings movies were filmed, and then maybe have a cup of coffee with Frodo if I’m lucky.  On a smaller scale, I’ve taken a recent interest to Tiny Doors Atlanta. A group of people is putting tiny elf-sized doors around Atlanta for people to find, and I think it’s the most adorable idea ever. I’ve found one so I have three more to find #tinydoorsATL.

Any places you'd like to travel to after graduation?

I want to see the world, plain and simple. I recently traveled through Spain and Morocco and made a best friend in a camel, so I’ve caught the wanderlust bug. However, in the few weeks between graduation and my start date might not be enough time to see the Taj Mahal as well as the moats of Venice. After graduation, I actually plan to stay around Georgia. I have three weeks after graduation before I move away, and I can’t wait to spend my time bugging my younger brother; dressing my beloved pug, Tator Tot, up in her pink tutu; and saying sweet goodbyes. I’ve lived in Georgia all my life so it’s a strange feeling knowing that I can’t just drive home for a home-cooked meal whenever I need it, but how exciting is it that I get to start a new life in an incredible city like Washington D.C.? Instead of traveling, I’m going to invest the money in a floor-length down jacket and an electric blanket for those northern winters.

What are some of your professional and personal goals?

It’s always a daunting question when people ask you what you want to do with your life. I used to want to be a doctor, like on Grey’s Anatomy (McDreamy included), but I quickly learned that I faint when I see blood, so I sprinted to Memorial Hall and changed my major. My professional goal is to be Secretary of State one day, but on a smaller scale, I simply want to be good at what I do. I love the public relations and communication field, and I want to stay in an industry where I’m motivated to be successful and better society at the same time. As for my personal goals, I have a dream to get my pug, Tator Tot, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Tator has her own Instagram and Facebook, and she is the biggest diva you’ll ever meet. At the end of the day, though, if Tator doesn’t make it to Ellen’s white chairs, my personal goal just consists of living a life of happiness and laughter, because laugh lines are the only wrinkles I want when my night cream stops working.

Any advice you would give to current UGA students?

Everyone told me that this would be the greatest four years of my life, but no one ever told me how to make it great. Now with only four months left in these years great, I think I’ve finally figured it out. ‘Great’ is relative to each person, and that’s the beauty of this university. One ‘great’ Friday can be spent staying in and binge-watching Disney Channel movies, and you can do that because you go to The University of Georgia. One ‘great’ Saturday can be spent tromping through the State Botanical Gardens, and you can do that because you go to The University of Georgia. One ‘great’ Thursday can be spent at Noche Latina dancing with new friends, and you can do that because you go to The University of Georgia. The bottom line is that you have to go out and make your ‘great’ and never compromise who you are, and you can do that because you go to The University of Georgia. Be who you are and be a great you. These really are the greatest four years.

What drew you to the Lockheed program, and what are you most looking forward to?

When I started my final fall semester, I was really discouraged because I had no idea what I wanted to do. I read dozens of job descriptions, but I never felt like any of them were written for me. However, when I read the Lockheed Martin Communications Leadership Development Program description and watched the promotional video, I genuinely had goosebumps on my arms. This was it. Lockheed Martin is a company that works to improve society every single day through innovation, technology and knowledge. This company values their employees and makes investments in our lives so that we can succeed. I could not be more honored to work for such an empowering company. I’m really looking forward to working with the Lockheed Martin communication team. It’s only January, and I already feel like I am part of a family that spans all across the country. Everyone has been so supportive and helpful, which is going to lessen those first-day jitters, that is, unless I drink too much coffee again.

If you could describe your time at UGA with one word, what would it be?

Magical

AdPR Alumni Spotlight: Sydney Owens

PR alum Sydney Owens

Sydney Owens is currently a Senior Communications Rep at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas.

What was your major and when did you graduate?

I graduated in 2008 with a PR and Psychology double major.

What activities were you involved while in Grady/UGA?

I was a member of PRSSA where I participated in Creative Consultants and was the PRecedent editor on the executive board. I was also a Grady Ambassador and was on the Bateman PR campaign competition team. Outside of Grady, I was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

What are you doing now and how did you get there?

I am the social media and web communications lead for our Aeronautics business. That basically means that I am the community manager for the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft social media channels, and I also contribute content to our corporate-level social media properties and strategy.

I joined Lockheed Martin through the Communications Leadership Development Program (CLDP), which consists of two one-year rotations to learn the business and corporate communications functions. After completing CLDP, I moved back to Fort Worth to lead trade show communications. 

A short time later, a position opened up to be the content manager for a new F-35 website, which I accepted in 2011. Since then, I created and launched F-35 social media channels on Twitter and Facebook and took on additional responsibilities as our business area’s social media lead.

What is your day-to-day like at your job? (Any interesting projects that you can share with us?)

Every day is different! I spend a lot of time monitoring social media and planning for upcoming events and campaigns. I occasionally get to travel to media events around the U.S., Canada and even one in South Korea.

One fun project I’ve worked on is the Test Pilot Tuesday video series, where our test pilots answer questions from the public in short YouTube clips. I collected questions through the website and social media, interviewed the pilots and promoted the videos online. I also led the charge for our company’s first Tweet Chat with one of our test pilots earlier this year.

What part of your Grady experience (classes, professors, etc.) has been helpful in your career today? 

Dr. Russell’s courses prepared me very well for my current job – PR Writing, Social Media and campaigns as our Bateman team adviser. I was one of the first communicators to join Lockheed Martin that had received instruction on integrating social media into campaigns, which helped me establish myself as a subject matter expert when I started working in 2008.

What is your favorite Grady memory? 

I studied abroad with Grady at Oxford the summer before my senior year, and I loved every second of it. I also had an excellent team experience working on the Bateman project. We spent a lot of time in the Drewry room, Dr. Sweetser’s kitchen and each other’s apartments planning and executing our campaign. It was as rewarding as it was exhausting. I still remember Dr. Russell’s blunt feedback on our first exec summary for our Bateman submission. She told us it was boring. She was right.

What advice do you have for current AdPR students? 

Take advantage of what Grady has to offer! There are so many opportunities to take unique courses, join clubs, network and get real work experience that will prepare you well for life after graduation.