by Bob Ratliff
photo by Russ Houston

axine Jones came to Mississippi State in the fall of 1997 with the goal of becoming a chemical engineer. She's made it halfway to that goal, but she's also accomplished something else-a starring role on TV.

The Franklin County junior is being featured in a TV spot promoting Wal-Mart's Competitive Edge Scholarship program. Maxine, the youngest of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Jones' five daughters, applied for the scholarship during her senior year at Franklin County High School. Her father is a retired dry kiln operator for Georgia Pacific and her mother is an assistant teacher.

Notification of her acceptance came in June following graduation and was critical in making her dream of attending Mississippi State come true, according to her mother.

"She wouldn't send her application anywhere else but Mississippi State because she had heard how good the engineering program is," said Mrs. Jones, noting that sending Maxine to MSU was going to be difficult for the family that had already sent her four older sisters to college. "She was determined to go to MSU, even if it meant delaying school to work and save money."

Receiving the scholarship, which pays $5,000 a year for four years, meant that Maxine would not have to delay her college plans. Her determination, participation in campus activities, and academic success during her first two years at the university were qualities that led to her selection to be featured in TV spots and print ads for the scholarship program.

Several hundred students receiving Competitive Edge scholarships were asked to submit e-mail summaries of their college experiences during the spring 1999 semester, according to Tyler Hattery with Wal-Mart's advertising agency, Bernstein-Rein Advertising, Inc., of Kansas City, Mo.

"Based on those e-mails, we called about 100 of the students," he said, adding that the telephone interviews narrowed the field down to Maxine and two other students. "We went on a casting trip to MSU and decided she would be the best for the commercial. We also were excited about filming on the MSU campus because its look says 'campus life.'"

Third Eye Productions, a Kansas City-based film company, was on the Mississippi State campus during the summer to film the spot.

Third Eye brought a crew of almost 20 to campus, hired about a dozen MSU students as extras, and spent two days filming at the MSU library, cafeteria, chemical engineering labs, and other locations.

Being the focus of a TV spot that will be seen by millions of people meant getting a lot of attention, including the services of a makeup artist and wardrobe mistress, and Maxine says it was an experience she will long remember.

"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 Maxine's home in Roxie for an additional day of taping. The resulting 30-second spot began airing on network and cable TV in August. The spots will run for a year. Print ads featuring Maxine also have appeared in Better Homes and Gardens.

The Competitive Edge Scholarship Fund was established in 1992 by Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and is designed to help train leaders in manufacturing, industry, and technology-related fields. Information about the scholarship is available on the Internet at http://compedge.wal-mart.com/.