One semester to go..

Now that this semester is over with, it has finally hit me there is one semester left of college. I have completed my Spanish minor and I just have a few more classes left till I receive my Mass Communication degree in Public Relations in May 2012. As far as next semester goes, I am looking forward to continuing my work with SpectrumPR as well as putting together my portfolio in my Senior Career Development course. Outside of classes, Real World PR will be taking place and I can't wait to be able to talk with PR professionals about the path I want to take in the field of public relations. I am more than looking forward to seeing what is in store for next semester! 

SpectrumPR

SpectrumPR is Georgia College's not-for-profit, student run agency that operates out of the PRSSA chapter. I am the director of the agency, along with my co-director, Kendall Brennan. We have put a lot of effort into fulfilling the potential of the agency and we are quite satisfied with our clients and teams for this semester. We recently just completed an event, Survivors in Pink, which honored the breast cancer survivors in the Baldwin county community. For those of you who have read my previous blog posts, Survivors in Pink was started last year by my best friend and I. Our moms are the inspiration to the event since they are both recent breast cancer survivors and we wanted to do something special for the survivors in the local community while gaining experience in the world of event planning. I brought on my team of wonderful, talented, and intelligent ladies with SpectrumPR to help plan this event and let me tell you, every single one of them did a fantastic job. I could not have asked for a better event! (This event needs a blog post for itself, so one will be following this one in the nearby future) Another client we have taken on is Buffington's, which is a local and hip restaurant in downtown Milledgeville. We are working on a year-long campaign for them which will continue throughout next semester. Another event that we are doing this semester is called Evening in Excellence, which is an inspirational event honoring young women in excellence. Every team for each of these accounts is unique and talented and I am so thrilled as to how this semester is going so far!

Survivors in Pink team at Bras for a Cause fundraiser

The success from my internship

So, I know that it has been a while since I have posted, but with the busy Fall semester, there has been quite the limited amount of time. For those of you who want to find out how my internship went, well, it was such a great experience and one I have immensely learned from. As a public relations student in my Senior year, I am starting to figure out more of what I want to pursue in my field of PR. Working with a SOGA made me realize the ins and outs of working with a non-profit organization. During my course of the internship, I got the chance to write several press releases, which gained media coverage in over 15 online media outlets. I also produced a cost-efficient Save the Date for an event as well as creating several brochures and flyers. I also created and administered the social media for SOGA, including their Facebook fan page. I worked closely with the Special Events director and the CEO and I learned from them the aspects of working in non-profit. I enjoyed my internship but I would like to gain experience in other fields of public relations, like working for an agency. I guess I will see where this semester takes me and then graduation in May 2012!

Certificate of Recognition

Summer Internship

I am the PR and Special Events intern with Special Olympics Georgia for the summer and I am absolutely loving it so far. I couldn't of asked for a better internship to start out with. At first, of course, I was intimidated going into an internship, but everyone at the office, including my wonderful supervisor, made me feel comfortable and I began to gain my confidence back as the first few days passed. So far, I have done a few press releases, one in which was published in over 15 different media outlets. I have also started engaging Special Olympics Georgia into social media and have created a Facebook page and an events page for one of our upcoming fundraisers, the Duck Derby. I am in the midst of creating a Save the Date and flyer for another one of our fundraisers, the Polar Plunge. These are just a few tasks I have completed, of course there are many more to come!

MSCM Senior luncheon 2011

For my practicum this semester, Erin Keeler and I coordinated and planned the Mass Communication Senior luncheon on April 1st in Magnolia Ballroom. Along with the help of our wonderful professor, Dr. Carter, we successfully achieved our goal of making this event perfect for our graduating seniors. After 3 months of hard work and texts throughout the night and morning, the event was perfect and we couldn't have done any better. Another successful practicum, gotta love them! One more practicum to go, not sure if it will beat the last two I have had. I can't believe that will be me at the senior luncheon next year graduating..oh my..gotta live up the next year in college!

What I gained from Real World PR 2011

I must say that attending Real World PR 2011 was one of the best experiences I could have gotten, especially being a college student new to the world of PR. I will admit that at first it was a bit intimidating just knowing that everyone there is pretty much looking for the same internship/career, but once I left the conference, I felt so much more confident that I am in the right industry and that I can be successful in the public relations field. I was able to network with several skilled individuals and it was a bit relieving knowing they were in the same place I was not too long ago. There were three different sessions that I attended during the conference:

Corporate World or Agency Life? "Never under promise, always over deliver"
In this session, I learned the differences between corporate and agency. Most of the professionals that are in corporate actually started out in agency or non-profit. The main idea that I learned out of this session is that you have to start somewhere and you need to take what you can get just to build your experience. Building skills and gaining more experience is a must in the Public Relations industry and you begin to learn more about who you are as an individual. Your first internship does not have to be the perfect one. You also must need agency experience before working for a corporation. I also learned that the one question that professionals like to hear at an interview is, "What can I do day one that will make your life easier?" Being able to stand out at an interview is very important since the Public Relations field is a highly competitive one.

Get the Interview, Land the Job.
During this session, I learned there are three main ideas that professionals look at when someone goes into an interview. 1) great attitude- very positive and knowledgeable about what they want and what they can provide. 2) Initiative- do whatever you can do. 3) persistent- but without being overly persistent.
It is also important to have relevant experience on a resume. If you worked at a diner for 2 months, that is not important unless you can make it related to what the internship/job is asking for. Also, it's important to add specifics. For example, if your press releases got published, where exactly did they get published at. Tailor your resume for every single job and make your skills fit that specific job description. Be ready at every single event, always have business cards handy and even carry around a resume. You never know when a PR Professional will be sitting next to you during an event. It is also important to know about the company and what they are looking for-be prepared and give a firm handshake. Follow up after the interview and make it within reasonable timeframe. The STAR approach is a must when giving specific scenarios- Situation, Task, Action, Results

Work Hard, Play Hard
This session appealed to me because I have an interest with hotels and tourism. the ACVB had a representative as well as InterContinenal Hotels Group and the Georgia Department of Economic Development. I learned that non-profit is 85% attractions and there is always going to be the need to fundraise. The positives of working for non-profit are: showing off and gaining experience for the company, meeting people from around the country, charity events, leads to direct results, very hands on, lots of energy and fun. There are negatives that come also: doing more with less money, close to bottom of pay scale, and biggest challenge is crisis.  Courses that are beneficial to take are research courses, creative writing, marketing, fundraising, foreign language (which Spanish is my minor already, yipee!) and industry trends

Besides attending these sessions, there was time for a resume critique session and a career expo, which I found both extremely beneficial. I would not have missed this conference for anything and I am so glad I was able to attend. I am on my path to success in the PR industry!

Bobcat PRSSA at Real World