Austin Teen Earns Perfect ACT Score: St. Michael’s Prep Senior William Robertson Achieves a 36 

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AUSTIN, Texas (January, 21 2026) â€” William Robertson, a senior at St. Michael’s Prep, earned the highest possible ACT Composite score of 36, placing him in the top one-quarter of 1% of all ACT test-takers nationwide. 

In last year’s U.S. high school graduating class, only 3,041 out of 1.37 million students who took the ACT earned a perfect composite score of 36. 

The ACT includes four subject tests: English, mathematics, reading, and science, each scored on a scale of 1–36. A student’s Composite score represents the average of those four section scores. 

“When a student earns a top score of 36 on the ACT test, it opens doors to a promising future, demonstrating for colleges and universities that they are ready for the challenges ahead,” said ACT CEO Janet Godwin. “This remarkable achievement is something we celebrate along with the student and their family.” 

William’s perfect score reflects years of disciplined academic work, deep curiosity, and an ability to perform at the highest level across multiple subject areas. In addition to his academic success, he is a leader and builder, serving as the Lead Programmer and Captain of his school’s award-winning FTC Robotics Team, where he leads design, prototyping, testing, and the development of autonomous and driver-operated code. 

William’s passion for robotics began early. In second grade, he started learning to code using Scratch, and by fifth grade, he had already built a reputation as a student who could bring ideas to life through programming. That year, St. Michael’s Prep’s STEM Director invited William to program a Dash and Dot robot to deliver a message to teachers during faculty inservice—an early moment that helped spark what would become a long-running love of engineering, problem-solving, and innovation. 

William has also balanced his rigorous coursework and extracurricular commitments with meaningful real-world engineering experience. He has worked as a classic automotive mechanic at Jerry Dixon’s Automotive since he was 14, gaining hands-on experience rewiring harnesses and rebuilding major engine components, an opportunity that has further strengthened his passion for engineering and problem-solving, including purchasing and rebuilding his own 1965 Buick Electra. 

Outside of academics and STEM, William is deeply involved in the life of the St. Michael’s Prep community. He serves on the school’s Executive Student Council and was selected for the Senior Leadership Team, roles that reflect his character, work ethic, and commitment to leading by example. He is also an altar server for school Masses and plays piano for school concerts, gatherings and community socials, contributing his talent to some of the school’s most meaningful events. 

William is also known for stepping into new challenges with determination and grit. As a junior, he began playing football for the first time and earned Rookie of the Year as an offensive lineman, quickly becoming a valued member of the team through his discipline, coachability, and drive to improve. 

His accomplishments extend well beyond the classroom and workplace. William and his robotics team have earned top honors at the state, national, and international levels, including FTC State Championships and a Top 5 finish at the FTC World Championship, competing against thousands of teams worldwide. 

“Balancing academics with robotics, work, and football taught me a lot about discipline and time management. I’m proud to earn a 36, and I’m grateful for the many people who have challenged and supported me as I work to become the best version of myself,” said William Robertson. 

At St. Michael’s Prep, preparation for college is a Pre-K3-12th grade journey supported by counselors, faculty, coaches, and families. Students are encouraged to explore their strengths, pursue their passions, and find best-fit colleges where they can thrive. 

ACT scores are accepted by major four-year colleges and universities across the U.S. and remain one of the key factors used in admissions, scholarship consideration, and course placement decisions. 

About St. Michael’s Catholic Preparatory School 

St. Michael’s Catholic Preparatory School is the result of the bold unification of two outstanding Independent Catholic Schools in Southwest Austin: St. Gabriel’s Catholic School, founded in 1999 for grades PK-8, and St. Michael’s Catholic Academy, founded in 1984 for grades 9-12. The unification allows for excellent, innovative programming for students in grades Pre-K3 â€“ 12, specifically: a seamless alignment of curriculum, athletics, fine arts, and STEM; robust and challenging academics with a foundation of Social Emotional Learning, and; a warm and inviting community rooted in Catholic identity. 

Known for their unparalleled dedication to an exceptional experience, St. Michael’s Prep faculty and students alike are recognized through national notable awards and recent State Championships in Basketball, Swimming, Dance and Robotics. 

For more information, visit the school website. 

About ACT 

ACT is transforming college and career readiness pathways so that everyone can discover and fulfill their potential. Grounded in more than 65 years of research, ACT’s learning resources, assessments, research, and work-ready credentials are trusted by students, job seekers, educators, schools, government agencies, and employers in the U.S. and around the world to help people achieve their education and career goals at every stage of life. Visit ACT online. 

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Early Bird Gets the Worm (and so much more)

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We were joking in a meeting the other day about being alone in a Zoom room. You know, when you’re a few minutes early, there’s a quiet peace—a few moments to think.

Yes, there’s a little tension when you know other people are about to join you in this virtual space. Typically, one or two people join, you exchange pleasantries, and then the meeting starts.

But the old saying “the early bird gets the worm” is true, even in the post-COVID era of remote work.

In this particular meeting, I was getting ready to meet with the broader team on a project we were working on, and I joined a few minutes early. So, I’ve had a longtime collaborator I’ve known since long before the pandemic. We’ve been through all kinds of ups and downs and all arounds, including many moments of genuine connection. The spontaneous chatter about our day held within it the answer to our issue.

We’re all juggling a lot. Our schedules are packed most days with client and internal meetings, so it takes a conscious effort not to rush. But by building an “early bird gets the worm” culture, we leave room for that magic that happens in the quiet before the chaos.

Why is this truism so true? When I was younger, I wasn’t very punctual, but that changed quickly once I got to college and entered the business world. At some point, I became a person who is early to in-person meetings, movies, and date night reservations. I love hitting a deadline early and moving the task to the clients faster than expected. I cherish those Zoom room moments with my fellow early birds, who relish the worms we find together.

Interested in following me on Substack? Subscribe here: https://substack.com/@jennagruhalaoltersdorf

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In a Public Relations Rut?

When it feels like you’ve run out of angles to pitch, that’s when it pays to have an open mind and ambitious creativity.

We’re a creative PR firm and tend to win a lot of clients because their previous PR firm grew a little stale. It’s easy for anyone to get into a rut when it comes to brand development and storytelling, but here are some strategies we use to keep our clients’ content and outreach efforts fresh. We believe that there is no detail too small that won’t catch a reporter’s eye; it’s just a matter of finding the right one. Here are some ways we boost our own PR efforts and how you can supercharge yours:

  1. Look to your people for storytelling inspiration. Do you have a longevity story to tell because your people stick with you? Or how about an employee who always goes above and beyond —maybe there’s a business story that will inspire others.
  2. What truly makes you unique when compared to your competition? Talk about it! Is it the speed of service? It could be a unique ingredient. Lean into what makes you different.
  3. Limited-time offers are a great way to reconnect with guests and find new customers. Are you able to do a limited run of something? A short run of a menu item or service?
  4. Many have jumped on the community giving bandwagon over the years, but doing good is never a bad PR strategy. Remember, it doesn’t take a huge donation to make a big difference. The ALS bucket challenge didn’t cost a cent.
  5. Is your business solving a challenge that could change your industry? Consider writing an opinion editorial for your local daily newspaper and/or a key trade magazine.
  6. When is the last time you won an award for your business or a high-performing team member? Take a look at your local business media for inspiration on awards you could chase after
  7. Do you have a skill that promotes your business and could be taken to television as a tutorial? Our food clients make mouthwatering dishes on TV, but if you’re a hotel, let’s fold a fitted shit with a local anchor!
  8. Do you have a major milestone or anniversary? Work with your local mayor’s office to create a proclamation.
  9. Take a look at seasonality. Is there a story related to spring that you can tell? For our HVAC clients, we’re talking about changing filters in your home. Did you know May is National Barbecue Month? Leverage tier two holidays to your benefit. How does Daylight Saving Time or Mother’s Day relate to your business or organization?
  10. Dream up your own top 10 list. Everybody loves stories that count down (or up) with tips. (See what we just did there? 🙂)
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In Uncertain Times, Restaurants Offer a Slice of Stability

When the economy gets shaky, comfort becomes currency — and guess what? People turn to restaurants to feel better.

Even though they might be tightening up their budgets, American customers won’t cut back completely. They will just redefine what splurging on themselves looks like, and that’s a huge opportunity for quick-service restaurants and other mid-level dining establishments that once might have specialized in lunch but now find themselves catering to people at all hours of the day.

When groceries cost as much as dining out, reluctant home cooks wonder why they are going to all the trouble in the first place. A home-cooked meal can easily cost $10-15 per serving, not to mention the time required to gather the ingredients and put them together. That’s the cost of those fancy prepared meal kit companies, which also require effort to plan and, ironically, prepare. This is when QSRs shine.

With bulk buying power, QSRs can manage the fluctuating market costs better than the home consumer, and with the right storytelling, restaurants can position themselves not only as a value but also a source of certainty during uncertain times.

If big-ticket items get scrapped, like that big family trip or add-on to the house that no longer feels affordable, a nice dinner feels like a mini getaway. This si the time for QSR restaurants to remind people that they offer a safe, familiar escape in the middle of the chaos and stress of day-to-day life.

So, how can QSRs turn tough times into opportunity?

✅ Remind guests you’re here. Use storytelling, limited-time offers, and nostalgia to stay top of mind.

✅ Make their lives easier. Highlight the convenience and value — especially when your scale lets you do it better, faster, and cheaper than home cooking.

âś… Tap into emotion. Dining out is emotional. It’s a celebration, a stress-reliever, a family moment. Don’t just hint at that. Own it.

Tactics that work:

🎉 Grand re-openings, milestones (hello, 1 million margaritas!)

🍔 Limited-time menu drops and pricing on fan-favorites

đź“Ł Team shout-outs and founder stories to humanize your brand

📆 Tie into National Food Days for timely buzz

And don’t forget: PR is one of the most cost-effective tools in your marketing mix. Pair it with strong social to reach the hearts (and stomachs) of your community.

Want to stay relevant during rocky times? Be the comfort people crave, and if you’re feeling stuck, we’re here to help

 

 

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How-To: Evaluating your PR Firm

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Companies have many choices when it comes to promoting their businesses, from social media outreach to paid advertising. But if a business wants to grow their brand and reputation, third-party endorsements are the best way to accomplish it. When the media landscape is changing so quickly, and things are, shall we say, uncertain, sometimes it helps to think outside the conventional marketing box.

A good PR firm takes the guesswork out of this equation, but how do you know if your public relations work is paying off? How has that changed in the new media landscape? Over more than two decades of managing clients’ relationships with media, we’ve learned that the most important unit of measurement is quality of quantity, creative over tried-and-true.

We have been awarded many peer-reviewed awards for our creativity and results, but those don’t matter as much as our clients’ results. And you don’t get these kinds of results using press releases alone.

Of course, that’s just one tool in the marketing toolbox, but our PR philosophy helps clients thrive with organic reach and thoughtful media relationship development.

Here are six things to look for in a good PR team:

Chemistry. Life is too short to work with people you don’t enjoy spending time with, and chemistry is what makes creativity possible. That’s why your team is successful. That’s why our team is successful. The best PR firms are excellent collaborators, so find a team that knows the value of brainstorming. We’ve always emphasized having a workplace culture built on our team members being humans first and employees second. That means, in meetings with us, you’re getting a group of people who want to be there and enjoy doing what they do.

Proficiency in taking a story angle and working it from different perspectives to get more “juice from the squeeze.” Every client has many stories to tell, and each can be reported from different angles. A good pair of outside eyes can help you find those angles. A good PR firm wants to capitalize on trends and current events by pitching you — the business owner — as an expert in your field. It’s a dance, and everyone has a part.

Creative and contextual story ideas. It’s not enough to develop a wild idea to attract attention. Companies need to position themselves within their respective industries in a way that acknowledges what is going on around them. News moves faster than ever, and our pitches and conversations with journalists must consider the current news cycle and media “mood.” Your PR firm should be actively working alongside your team to develop angles through experience in your category, watching for industry news stories relevant to your business goals and offering creative ways to get your story out there.

Regular updates on placements and reach. Reporting is a key component of a PR agency’s work. PR work is very different from other tactics within the marketing mix and must be evaluated and analyzed regularly. We look at placements secured per campaign, quality of placements, audience numbers, and more to self-evaluate and report back to our clients on our performance. Reporting should be more sophisticated than a few bullets in an email; you’re certainly paying for more than that!

Regular contact with your team. We recommend at least monthly syncs with our clients, but sometimes, we meet as often as once a week with them to ensure we have what we need and that they have what they need regarding media assets, interview training, journalist outreach, and pitch development.

Clean copy, written by humans. While this shouldn’t have to be said about an industry of professional writers, it’s also important that your PR team doesn’t overly rely on AI to create the content that goes out into the world under your name. Using technology in smart, innovative ways is important, but the human touch is what gives this work value. We are not robots. Neither are you.

Uncertain times call for a certain kind of courage, and we see that again and again with our clients today, who stay focused on their work and are willing to get creative and innovative with us amid changing markets and what can feel like cultural chaos. That’s how we build something that we can all rely on, no matter the storm.

 

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“Put it on the wire” … but what does that mean?

We’ve all heard “let’s put this on the wire!” It sounds super glamorous, right?

 

Well, here’s the scoop: wire can be helpful in promoting a message, but it’s not always the solution. In this post, I’ll explain what a wire release is, who should use it and when.

First, what IS a wire release? It’s a method of distributing information through a press release we’ve written for our client through a wire. In the early days of journalism, all kinds of stories went out on “the wire” to be published in newspapers across the country. Eventually, marketing firms could distribute similar stories on a business “wire.” That has evolved into the digital era with a similar distribution strategy but using digital tools.

Second, WHY would you use a wire release? Some common reasons for putting a release on the wire include product launches and big investment announcements when the client wants as many headlines and page views as possible.

Third, HOW does all this work? We typically partner with a wire vendor like PR Newswire or Businesswire to push out the release. There are other players in the game, but generally speaking, we can get more reputable placements from a PR Newswire versus a smaller competitor. We’re always looking for value for our clients from these wire buys.

Generally speaking, we’ll pursue the nationwide release, which will be published in print and online nationally across the United States. At a minimum, we’re looking at a cost of about $1,000 for that wire release, but the price goes up based on word count, images, and more.

Fun fact: We can also select an option for a few hundred dollars to get the press release headline on a board in Times Square.

A cheaper option for PR Newswire is something called Webmax. It’s a digital-only distribution for half the cost and about half the placements.

When we’re logging placements, we usually include just one line for the PR Newswire release, even though that release might technically appear in hundreds of places. We report on the number of placements secured and the raw audience numbers. Still, we know that wire placements don’t hold the same cache as manually placed pieces, meaning where our team pitches a reporter, works with the reporter on the story and produces a unique piece. On the other hand, they boost search results in ways that earned editorial cannot through sheer volume.

We lean on wire releases at certain times, especially when building a client’s brand reputation or SEO portfolio, but we do that while simultaneously pitching the good old-fashioned way.

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AI in PR

Public Relations has evolved from writing press releases to being true storytellers, and it’s such an exciting time to be a thought leader in this space. There’s so much that keeps us up at night these days. But in our industry, with shrinking newsrooms, widening divides among readers and expanding fears around AI, we see this era as an opportunity.

I recently did a challenge between myself and ChatGPT for ideation around a grand opening event. ChatGPT produced results based on what’s been done. No matter how hard I pressed, the answers that came back to me were boring at best. They were expected solutions and no match for the creative solutions I was able to produce with just five minutes of uninterrupted focus time.

So, while AI can be a tool we use for research, I firmly believe it’s no match for the creative storytellers on our team.

Some suggestions on how PR people can use AI in their daily lives:
– Researching work by a specific reporter
– Researching media outlets that fit into certain categories
– Creating a competitive audit between different brands
– Gathering solutions for a specific campaign (like a grand opening) to know what’s been done in the past

Some suggestions on where NOT to use AI:
– Writing press materials
– Gathering ideas to deliver to clients
– Writing any kind of plan or strategy

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Best practices for media interviews

The art of media interviews is always evolving, but this year, we’ve seen changes unlike anything seen before. The priorities of every newsroom shifted entirely, and so did their interview styles. 

Read more
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5 Gift Ideas for the PR Pro in Your Life

A day in the life of a public relations professional can go one of two ways: Smooth sailing or HECTIC in letters nine feet tall. As this holiday season approaches (just 27 days left!), here is a list of gift ideas for the time-starved, Austin, Texas-based PR loved one in your life.

 

But First, Coffee

Even in a warm client like Austin, Texas, we need plenty of coffee to get through the day. As I was writing this post, it struck me: Why do I not have a Nespresso on my desk!?!?! We have one at home and I love it. Being in a family that doesn’t all wake up at the same time, the invention of the coffee pod really changed our lives. Keurig was great, but Nespresso makes THE best coffee. This one would be amazing … hint, hint, hint.

 

Put Time on Your Side

I definitely live a very digital life, but having a paper seven-day desktop planner on my desk that doubles as a mousepad has been a godsend. I use it to organize my to-dos, day-by-day. Paper Source on South Lamar is one of my favorite stops:

 

Travel in Style

For anyone who has shopped for a woman’s work bag, you can completely relate with the journey I recently went on … it took me TWO years of searching to finally find a bag that has tons of compartments, zips at the top (so you don’t lose your stuff on the airplane) and works well for everyday use. I use it to go back and forth from the office PLUS it can handle big work trips. A durable fabric and it looks good when it’s sitting in the board room. Knomo London made the most amazing Girl Boss bag ever!

 

Finding Balance

Anyone who knows me well, knows I love relaxing by a good fire. Unfortunately, in Austin, Texas, fire season is an itty, bitty window during our “winter”. Instead, I satisfy my fire needs through candles. I really like this one, not only for its pretty container, but also for its light scent.

 

Excuse for a Staycation

Anyone who is in PR is likely working from one of the best cities in the world… but when is the last time you were a tourist in your own city? Gift certificates to local hotels and best restaurants in your home city can be a perfect excuse to get in a little R&R without breaking the bank. On my wish list would be a stay at Hotel Saint Cecilia in Austin, Texas and a chance to try the puffy potatoes at Juniper.

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PR Isn’t Just About Creativity

By Yahaira Hernandez

During my time at Snackbox, I’ve learned that reporting is just as important as creativity. Yes, you have to exceed expectations with publicity stunts, social media tactics and writing phenomenal news releases and pitches. However, collecting information like audience reach, number of placements and knowing what worked and what didn’t work, is also extremely valuable to clients.

Having built millions (it feels like that much) of reports while at Snackbox, I’ve worked my way up to become a PR Analyst. This position focuses on the reporting and analytical side of the business, a side I thrive in and am quite fond of, unlike many creative-minded PR pros. One of the many great services we give includes our proprietary reports.

My executive team, Jenna and Eric Oltersdorf, learned long ago that reporting is a great way to keep clients happy and to hold our teams accountable. Clients appreciate seeing placements as they happen, but to see how a campaign performed from beginning to end makes them feel like their money is being well spent.

Clients have enjoyed our campaign reports so much that we’ve expanded our efforts to cover thorough analyses on competitors and what they’re doing, trends happening in the industry and so much more.

Having a PR firm that gives you quality placements is great, but having a firm that consistently gives you reports on tons of information in a concise document is not an easy find. That’s why we pride ourselves on being innovators in the industry.

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