Chandler Gibson

cmgibson1998@gmail.com
The University of Texas at Tyler

Academic Honors and Awards

● Ben and Maytee Fisch Fund Journalism Talent Scholarship ($3,000): 2017-2018, 2019 - 2021
● Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA) Awards:
o 2018:
▪ 1st Place: General Column
▪ 3rd Place: Critical Review
o 2019:
▪ Honorable Mention: In-Depth Reporting
▪ Honorable Mention: Critical Review
o 2020:
▪ 2nd Place All-State: Audio Newscast
▪ Honorable Mention: Podcast
● 88.5 KEOM Mesquite Talent Scholarship ($500): 2016-2017
● AP Scholar: 2016, 2017
● National Junior Honor Society: 2012
● Test Scores:
o LSAT:
▪ January 15th, 2021: 151
o AP Tests:
▪ Human Geography: 4
▪ World History: 3
▪ U.S. History: 4
▪ Physics 1: 1
▪ English Language & Composition: 3
▪ Spanish Language & Culture: 3
▪ US Government and Politics: 3
▪ Macroeconomics: 1
▪ Psychology: 1
▪ Biology: 3
▪ Environmental Science: 3
▪ English Literature & Composition: 2
o SAT
▪ 3/4/2016, 1190
● Evidence-Based Reading and Writing-640
● Math-550
▪ 11/5/2016, 1240
● Evidence-Based Reading and Writing-680
● Math-560
o ACT
▪ 6/2016, 26
● English-33
● Mathematics-22
● Reading-26
● Science-21
● Writing-17
 ▪10/22/2016, 28
● English-33
● Mathematics-20
● Reading-33
● Science-24
● Writing-6
● High school class rank: 69th out of class size of 420

Academic Clubs and Organizations

● The University of Texas at Tyler:
o Talon Student Media: Editor-in-Chief: 2019 - 2021
▪ In December of 2019, I became Editor-in-Chief of Talon Student Media, the
student media group at UT Tyler. As of my graduation in May 2021, I will have
served as EIC for five semesters. Under my term as EIC, we streamlined the
newspaper, launched The Patriot Talon’s first Food + Drink section, launched
Talon Podcasts, and ran multiple elements of a newsroom remotely during the
COVID-19 pandemic and 2021 Texas winter storm.
o Talon Student Media: Arts and Entertainment Section Editor: 2017 - 2018
▪ First, as a staff writer, I pitched and wrote stories, made deadlines, and
photographed/edited pictures. After being promoted to a section editor, I designed
the layout of the page, coordinated what stories would run at each deadline,
assigned people to and wrote certain stories. Every week, I put in enough hours to
justify setting up a bed in the office. Interviews, photography, and other general
production took a minimum of 10 hours on a Production Friday. Writing at least
took another 5. 15 hours a week, every other week; I put in about 30-45 hours a
month.
o Coordinated Admission Program Student Association (CAPSO): Vice-President: 2017 -
2018
▪ I started the club as a way for the CAP students of UT Tyler to get to know one
another and study together, and to build a community of people to support
students who are transferring to Austin at the end of one year at Tyler, and also to
support and provide academic help to those who choose to stay at UT Tyler.
Promoting the club, filling out the paperwork to start it, and meetings were
cumulatively about
o Gender, Sex, and Sexuality Alliance: Secretary/Treasurer: 2017 - 2018
▪ A community of people who are LGBTQ or allies of the LGBTQ community,
who want to create an environment of safety, acceptance, and LGBTQ networking
in East Texas. The club did not exist prior to myself and a few other students
founding it, and as Secretary/Treasurer, I handled primarily any money used for
events given to us by members of the club or the Student Government. During the
year, we started a #I’llGoWithYou campaign to support transgender students’
ability to use the bathroom of their choice, and hosted an event for National
Coming Out Day.
o Colleges Against Cancer: Logistics Chair: 2017 - 2018
▪ Colleges Against Cancer’s primary event every year is a Relay for Life, and the
Fall 2017 Relay was the first Relay held on campus. As the Logistics Chair of the
Executive Board, it was my responsibility to anticipate crowd size, coordinate and
direct volunteers and teams, and serve as intermediary between participants of the
Relay/food providers/entertainment and the planning committee.
 o The Council of Student Presidents: Member: 2017 - 2018
▪ A member of the Council of Student Presidents, I attended meetings, worked with
others to promote our student organizations and expand the student body’s
extracurricular involvement, and worked with the administration to increase the
accessibility and number of student organizations on campus.

● The University of Texas at Austin:

o The Daily Texan: Life & Arts Staff Writer: 2018-2019
▪ Wrote stories on deadline for the Life & Arts section of UT Austin’s Daily Texan,
the largest daily student newspaper in the country.
o ORANGE Magazine: Food + Drink Staff Writer: 2018-2019
▪ Following a scheduling conflict at The Daily Texan, I wrote for ORANGE
Magazine, a student-run digital-first lifestyle magazine at UT Austin. I met
regular deadlines, wrote several in-depth stories throughout the year, and even had
some work published in the physical copy of the magazine.
o Senate of College Councils: Academic Integrity Committee At-Large Member:
2018-2019
▪ Became the only journalism student to join UT Austin’s student senate. Working
with my committee, we spearheaded legislation to protect and enhance academic
integrity on campus, as well as plan events and recruit members on a regular
basis.
o Journalism Transfer Student Advisory Council: Member: 2018-2019
▪ Working with other journalism transfer students at UT Austin, we formed a
student advisory council to the administrators in the Moody College of
Communication’s school of journalism, and to the relevant admissions teams. We
worked to enhance the transfer student experience, build communities, and advise
on changes and updates being made to the curriculum and reinforce student
equality and accessibility to resources.
● Dr. Ralph H. Poteet High School:
o Yearbook: Advertisement Manager: 2015 - 2017
▪ I developed and managed a grassroots marketing and sales campaign for local
businesses to buy advertising space in my high school yearbook, and it was
successful enough that we were making money before we sold any yearbooks. I
spent about ten hours a week for two whole school years working on staff.
o Junior World Affairs Council (JWAC): 2013 - 2017
▪ A club based on education with a global perspective, I participated in many club
events including International Career Day, attending events with political expert
speakers like Fareed Zakaria and Henry R. Nau. Typically meetings were an hour
once a month, unless we had an event, in which case it generally lasted about 7
hours.
o Help Our Planet Earth (HOPE): 2015 – 2017
▪ This club promoted recycling on campus, collecting trash and recyclables once a
week, and volunteering outside of school hours with organizations like Keep
Mesquite Beautiful and events like Trash Bash. It was an hour long every week
for two full school years.
o Student Council: 2013 – 2017
▪ We volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House, food banks, a number of other
charities, and also decorated the school before Prom/Homecoming/certain
holidays to help students get volunteer hours needed to graduate. I went to the
 monthly meetings which lasted an hour, but most volunteer events either fell
through or conflicted with my job or classes, so I went to every meeting and
helped at events held during the school day, usually 3 or 4 hours a month.
o Technology Student Association (TSA): 2015 – 2017
▪ A national competition about technology and applications of it in the modern
world. My Yearbook teacher asked me to do it one year a week before
competition, so with such little time to research the topic for my essay I did not
make it past the first round, but my second time doing it I won first place at area
and went to compete at state for Essay on Technology. Area competition days
lasted around 9 hours, and even more for the State competition, which was a
multiple day event.
o Spanish Club: 2013 – 2017
▪ A club promoting the Spanish language and culture, we hosted Hispanic holidays
like Cinco de Mayo, Dia de los Muertos, and La Posada around the school, sold
Latin food made by members, and donated toys for Toys for Tots every year.
Weekly meetings were an hour long, and events ran 2 or 3 hours. We did a
fundraiser every 2 or 3 months which lasted all day because we carried a box
around with us throughout the day.
o Mock Trial: 2016 - 2017
▪ A national competition where every team is given the same court case that
changes every year, the teams build a prosecution, defense, and witnesses to give
testimony and act out a courtroom scene with every step of the trial process
explored. I participated as a witness and won “Best Witness” nominations from
multiple judges. Every week, I put in 6 hours after school in meetings, there were
all-day meetings some weekends, and then an all-day competition in the spring.

Community Service
● Portable Pantry Program: 2013 – current, provides food bags to low income and homebound
senior citizens
● Mesquite Elks Lodge partnership with Mesquite Social Services: 2007 – current, Christmas party
for low income children of clients of MSS as well as Food Boxes for the families distributed on
Christmas Eve.
● Mesquite Elks Lodge partnership with Girl Scouts: 2007 – current, separate boxes of cookies for
an average of 40 troops each day over a 3 day assignment.
● Keep Mesquite Beautiful – Youth Environmental Leadership: 2014 – current, Participate in
Recycle Day, Trash Bash and Addressing Mesquite.

Paid Employment Experience

● State Fair of Texas, Hast Texas Nachos: 2014-2015, seasonal. Customer service taking orders
and preparing food and collecting money.
● DramaKids International, Teaching Assistant: 2015 – 2017. Participated in Drama Kids since
2008, was asked to become a TA.
● Griswold Homecare, Office/Social Media Coordinator: 2015-current. Process time cards and
handle all social media articles and notifications via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
● 88.5 KEOM Mesquite Schools Radio, On-Air Talent/Reporter: 2016-2017. On-air broadcasting
on weekdays from 8 AM-Noon, conduct interviews, edit packages for airing.
● Chili’s Grill and Bar, Host: 2017.
● Patriot Talon, Distribution Manager: 2017-2018, 2019-2021. Deliver the bi-weekly newspaper
and semesterly magazines to newstands around campus, log trends in newspaper pickup, operate
University golf cart within safety guidelines