A scholarship named for a Dallas advertising pioneer and early benefactor of the Naveen Jindal School of Management already has made a big difference in the life of the student who recently received it.
“Because of finances, I had actually deferred getting my master’s until after I had maybe a little bit of money after working,” said Haris Fazlani during acceptance remarks last December. “But because of the scholarship, I got to enroll.”
A new student in the MS in Marketing program, Fazlani is the most recent recipient of the Morris Hite Memorial Scholarship, a $3,000 award given annually by the Dallas chapter of the American Advertising Federation and its philanthropic arm, the Dallas Ad League Foundation Fund of Communities Foundation of Texas.
Fazlani was days away from earning his bachelor’s degree in marketing from UT Dallas at the end of last year when the president and CEO of the Dallas-based TracyLocke creative agency, Beth Ann Kaminkow, presented him with the scholarship.
Morris Hite was an ad man and longtime civic booster who helped promote the construction of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and played an active role in the creation of UT Dallas.
Describing Fazlani as a “very deserving recipient,” Kaminkow said that “he is also someone who is personally living out the American dream.” His parents came to America from Pakistan, she said, “and have, through the years, worked very, very hard at different jobs.”
Fazlani recounted that story, in part, in an application letter for the scholarship. He described paying for most of his education through financial help from the school and government funds, because his parents could not afford to pay his way through school.
“Haris has been a student of mine in several classes, and he has always produced strong and cutting–edge work,” said Julie Haworth, director of the Jindal School’s undergraduate program in marketing. “I fully expect him to excel as a professional marketer.”
Fazlani’s drive was a lifelong trait of the late Morris Hite (1910-1983), the Dallas ad man for whom the scholarship is named. Hite started his own advertising agency by the time he was 20 and later rose to the presidency of TracyLocke.
A longtime civic booster who helped promote construction of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and who envisioned the Dallas Arts District, Hite also played an active role in the creation of UT Dallas.
In recognition of his efforts, UT Dallas endowed and established the Morris Hite Center for Product Development and Marketing Science in 1984.
An ongoing UT Dallas supporter, Hite’s widow, Caroline, was in attendance when Fazlani received his scholarship.