Brendan Ellingham

Brendan Ellingham is the 2015 winner of the $1,250 Lou Cahill Scholarship in Communications.

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. Recipients are recognized for academic excellence, community involvement and participation in charitable activities.

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

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

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. Through mentoring, they pass on lessons from Cahill 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 said he hopes to one day have his own consulting firm where he can help clients reach their communication and marketing objectives. He wants to learn from industry leaders and apply what he learns not only to his career, but to everyday 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.

Third-year communications students are eligible to apply for the annual scholarship. Applications are available from Student Awards and Financial Aid.