NEW ORLEANS - Much that is Louisiana Tech feels right at home in New Orleans.

New Orleans and Louisiana Tech University are "TECHnically" located 300 miles apart, but they are actually closer than you might think. As college football fans watch the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs take on Arkansas State at 8 p.m. tonight in the New Orleans Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, they may not see the ties between the university and the Big Easy or know that the relationship is much stronger and deeper than it might appear on television.

Louisiana Tech is known throughout the country and world for its strong academic programs, including Engineering, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Health Professions and Related Programs, Business, Management and Marketing.

Tying Tech's academic programs and Crescent City jobs together, New Orleans is home to the corporate offices of oil companies with major offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the distribution and service centers of offshore equipment suppliers and fabricators. The manufacturing industry is a significant part of the area economy, with petroleum, petrochemical, shipbuilding and aerospace industries all playing a role, making New Orleans a prominent landing place for Louisiana Tech graduates.

And Louisiana Tech has seen graduates from many other programs go on to prominent careers in New Orleans and make significant impacts and contributions in the community.

After a 30-year career in media and corporate public relations, 1972 Journalism graduate Chuck Dickey began a new career as a real estate appraiser for the Louisiana Tax Commission in 2004. He is currently President of Timberlane Country Club and a board member of the New Orleans Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, which honored him with their Plate Spinner Award in 2003. Dickey won Silver Anvil awards for his public relations campaigns for Cirque du Soleil and Tenet Healthcare.

The late Jesse Kendrick Hollis, Jr., known as Ken Hollis was a Louisiana Tech Business Administration graduate and Republican Party member of the Louisiana State Senate from Metairie in Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs. He served from 1982, when he won a special election to fill an unexpired term, until he was term-limited, effective January 14, 2008.

Ken Salzer, a 1973 graduate, is manager for external communications for McDermott International, Inc. in New Orleans while 1997 Journalism graduate DeAnn Deason is an executive leadership recruiter with Ochsner Health System in New Orleans.

The keynote speaker at Louisiana Tech's most recent commencement ceremony, Gerard Braud, is a New Orleans native and 1980 journalism graduate who began his career as a newspaper and television reporter who went on to found New Orleans-based Braud Communications, which serves organizations on five continents that rely on Braud to train their spokespeople and executives to communicate effectively during a crisis. His clients have ranged from the Fortune 500 clients to major government agencies in the U.S. and around the world, as well as medium to small businesses across America.

Two other Tech graduates hailing from New Orleans are Robert Howson, former chairman of the board of McDermott International and former University of Louisiana System President Randy Moffett.

The grace and beauty of Louisiana Tech shows in three graduates and former Miss Tech's now residing in the New Orleans area: Lydia Allen Sneed, Mallory Cox and Louellen Aden Berger (who was also Miss Dogpatch USA and appeared in an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies).

Exposure from playing in the New Orleans Bowl could mean even more connections between the Big Easy and Louisiana Tech in the future. Tech currently has close to 300 students from the New Orleans area enrolled at the university, but hopes are that number will grow.

"The current graduating class for 2016 from the New Orleans area has 6,000 prospective students, and we already have 650 of those students who have applied," said Joan Edinger, Tech's Interim Director of Admissions and Associate Director of Daily Operations. "We're hoping that the Bulldogs playing in the New Orleans Bowl will introduce even more high school students from that area to what we have to offer here at Louisiana Tech. We'd love to see an influx of students from the New Orleans area truly make that area become Bulldog Country."

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