Brendan Ellingham - Brock University's 2015 Lou Cahill Scholarship Winner

TORONTO, June 3, 2015 /CNW/ - Brendan Ellingham, Hamilton, Ontario is the 2015 winner of the $1,250 Lou Cahill Scholarship in Communications awarded by Brock University, St. Catharines. The Scholarship is awarded to a third year student studying in the four-year communications program in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film. Scholarship recipients are recognized for academic excellence, community involvement and participation in charitable activities.

The Scholarship was established to honour Lou J. Cahill, the founder of Enterprise Canada, the country's longest-operating public relations firm, who died in 2008. An icon of the Canadian public relations industry, Cahill held an honorary doctoral degree from Brock.

"We are delighted that Brendan has received the Lou Cahill Scholarship in Communications," said Bruce MacLellan, chair, the Communications + Public Relations Foundation. "Lou believed in community engagement and the importance of participation in charitable activities. He would have been proud of Brendan's achievements."

Winners of the scholarship benefit from mentoring by the Louis J. Cahill Society, an organization whose members worked with Cahill during their public relations careers and, where through mentoring, they pass on lessons from Lou to the next generation of public relations practitioners.

"Brendan's application demonstrated his strong commitment to things held important by Lou Cahill…effective communication and volunteering in the community," said Rick Mauro, a member of the scholarship jury and Louis J. Cahill Society. "We were particularly taken with Brendan's involvement with Course Hero, which helps students in Africa, and his eagerness to participate in the Society's mentoring program."

Ellingham hopes one day to have his own consulting firm where he can value and serve his clients to help them reach their overall communication and marketing objectives. He wants to learn from leaders in the communications industry and apply this knowledge not only to his career, but to everyday ventures in life.

He has a passion for baseball and is a winner of the Ontario University Athletics [OUA] championship with the Brock Baseball team. Through that interest, he volunteered with Big Brothers and Sisters working with the Game On program where he mentored a group of 15 boys from Mother Theresa Catholic Elementary School in St. Catharines, connecting with them through mentoring and coaching. 

Ellingham is a graduate of St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School Hamilton, and also attended Jamestown College in North Dakota, prior to entering Brock.

He is a winner of the Dobson Case Competition where teams were given a societal issue and asked to create a communications solution.

The Lou Cahill Scholarship is managed by the Communications + Public Relations Foundation. The Foundation promotes the advancement of communications and public relations as vital functions in society, is dedicated to the public interest, and is committed to increasing public knowledge and awareness of the role of communications and public relations in daily life. The Foundation accepts individual and corporate contributions towards research and educational initiatives nationwide.

Students at Brock in their third year of study in the four-year communications program in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film are eligible to apply for the annual Lou Cahill Scholarship in Communications.  Applications are available from the University's Student Awards and Financial Aid Office.

For more information about the Foundation and its public relations education initiatives, contact Barbara Sheffield, Executive Director, Communications +  Public Relations Foundation, Suite 1515, 73 Widdicombe Hill Blvd., Toronto, Ontario, M9R 4B3, or phone [phone] or e-mail [email protected].

Note to media: a photo available upon request.

SOURCE Communications + Public Relations Foundation

Dan Dakin, Media Relations, Brock University, [phone], ext. 5353, [email protected]; Barbara Sheffield, APR, FCPRS, Communications + Public Relations Foundation, [phone], [email protected]; For more information about the Scholarship, please visit: www.brocku.ca/safa