As part of a $2.1 million donation, San Antonio’s Our Lady of the Lake University this week launched a new school of mass communication and theater.
The gift was from Verónica Salazar Escobedo — a 35-year veteran at the San Antonio Express-News who served as both a columnist and executive — and her husband Rubén M. Escobedo.
“We want our graduates to become the best journalists, the best broadcasters, the best mass media in the country,” Salazar Escobedo said in a statement.
The new Salazar-Escobedo School of Mass Communication and Theater is located in OLLU’s Main Building, which also houses the Veronica Salazar Media Center, created in 2016 during the first phase of the couple’s $2.1 million gift.
Salazar Escobedo and her husband were inspired to fund the program after hearing about the university’s outdated equipment and meeting students, two of whom were Lone Star Emmy Award winners.
“I thought, ‘If they are already Emmy winners with outdated equipment, can you imagine — I get goosebumps — what they can accomplish with state-of-the-art equipment?’” Salazar Escobedo said.
On Tuesday, September 15, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García Siller will celebrate the school’s opening with a special mass and blessing.
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This article appears in Sep 9-22, 2020.