Contact: Bob Ratliff
Maxine Jones gets star treatment from the production crew.
Maxine Jones came to Mississippi State University two years ago with a plan to become a chemical engineer. Halfway to that goal, she recently completed something never anticipated: a starring television role.
Beginning in early August, the Franklin County junior will be featured in a TV advertisement promoting Wal-Mart's Competitive Edge Scholarship program. The 30-second spot featuring the Roxie native and MSU academic standout will air nationwide.
The youngest of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Jones' five daughters, Jones applied for the scholarship during her senior year at Franklin County High School. The notification of her selection for the $20,000 award shortly after graduation helped fulfill her dream of attending MSU, her mother said.
"She applied only to Mississippi State because she had heard how good the engineering program is," said Thelma Jones, noting that sending Maxine to Starkville was going to be difficult for a family that had already sent four older sisters to college.
Thelma Jones is an assistant teacher, while Walter is a retired dry kiln operator for Georgia-Pacific Corp.
"Maxine was determined to attend, even if it meant delaying school to work and save money," Mrs. Jones added.
Her determination, participation in campus activities and academic success during her first two years at MSU led to her selection for the TV spots and print ads that promote the scholarship program, said Tyler Hattery of Bernstein-Rein Advertising Inc.
Based in Kansas City, Wal-Mart's ad agency selected Jones from among several hundred e-mail summaries of college experiences submitted by Competitive Edge Scholars during the 1999 spring semester.
"Based on those e-mails, we called about 100 of the students," Hattery said. Telephone interviews narrowed the field down to Maxine and two others, he added.
"We visited MSU for a casting trip and decided she would be best for the commercial," he said. "We also liked the Starkville campus because its look says 'campus life.'"
A crew with Third-Eye Productions, a Kansas City film company, recently spent two full days on the MSU campus taping the TV spot.
In addition to its crew of almost 20, Third-Eye hired about a dozen MSU students as extras and spent two days filming at the Mitchell Memorial Library, Perry Cafeteria, Etheredge Chemical Engineering Building, National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, and other locations.
Even though being the focus of a TV spot to be seen by millions meant getting the full-time attention of a producer, makeup artist and wardrobe mistress, Maxine is modest about the experience.
"It was very exciting," she said. "The entire crew was really nice and I got to meet a lot of people."
The crew also traveled to the Jones' home in Roxie for a day of taping. The resulting TV spot will run for a year. Print ads are scheduled to appear in upcoming issues of Better Homes and Gardens.
Wal-Mart established the Competitive Edge Scholarship Fund in 1992 to help promote the training of leaders in manufacturing, industry and technology-related fields. Information about the scholarship is available on the Internet at .