The IWU Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) is off and running with new activities and lots of new members. The Half Day with a Pro event hosted by Hoosier Public Relations Society of America this fall brought IWU student face to face with professionals in the PR field.
Students were sent in groups to various corporations, agencies, and nonprofits in early November. These included: The Indiana Blood Center, Hirons and Company, Young and Laramore, Indiana State Fair, Eli Lilly, Indiana Humanities Council, Arts Council of Indianapolis, Borshoff, Indianapolis Indians, Indiana Bar Foundation.
Freshman Franki Reynolds was assigned to Eli Lilly and had the opportunity to spend the morning with Senior Communications Consultant Chris Bias, APR. “When I first entered the building I was already overwhelmed with just the size of the facility. Throughout my visit my professional gave me the opportunity to sit down with four different professionals who are currently working for Eli Lilly,” she said. ” One of the main things I learned from meeting with these four amazing professionals was how important writing skills are with having a communications and PR profession. It is such a necessity in today’s society to be able to write well and write directly towards your audience whether it be through Internet writing or actual print news writing.” Other experiences from Half Day with a Pro are reported on the IWU PRSSA Blog.
IWU PRSSA membership is at an all time high of 26 members including public relations, business administration, marketing, communication studies, and exercise science majors.
“I was blown away to see how many members we had paying dues,” President Nicole Chromey said. “Most of them were freshman and it was so exciting to see that leadership and past members were establishing, branding, and promoting PRSSA in a way that caught the attention of freshmen.”
PRSSA activities continue throughout the year and include several service projects in the local community as well as on-campus events and extensive networking and training in the public relations profession.