PR in the Real World

Recently our class had the opportunity to discuss public relations in the real world with an alumni from UW-Whitewater Amy Paul.  She is a recent graduate of the University graduating with a major in Public Relations and a Minor in Music.  Amy gave us a lot of great advice that we could relate to as undergrads, shared her experience on the transition from college students to professionals, and gave us a little insight on a day of working in the professional P.R. field. 

She told us that though she had a lot of experience in internships in her undergraduate career, she never would have predicted herself working in the area of p.r. she is today.  She is now the Public Relations Assistant for the Milwaukee County Executive Office and her duties consist of social media management, sending out press releases, monitoring the media coverage, and her biggest and most recent project of event planning, the Milwaukee County Remembers 9/11 10 year anniversary event.  She even had a live video feed from Fox 6 of the entire event. 
 
I really enjoyed listening to how she utilized the skills she learned at UW-W and in her internships to single handedly plan a very large nationally recognized event in less than a month.  Because event planning is something I am currently doing in my positions in the orgs I am involved in on campus it was really beneficial to listen to how she created a plan and conducted it, to how she dealt with last minute crisis situations during the event.  I really appreciated being able to ask her questions and have her go into detail about the steps to successfully finding a rewarding job in the P.R. field.

It was a great opportunity for networking as well. She gave us her business cards and her information to connect with her on twitter  and linked in as well. 

All in all I think that it was a great experience that I learned alot from and a presentation that I really enjoyed.

The PR Student

My name is Stacey Hanke; I am a senior this year at UW-Whitewater studying public relations, and minoring in journalism and advertising.  Throughout my journey of pursuing my undergraduate degree, I have found that the communication department and the university grants many opportunities and advice to help students find their right “niche”.  As a student who has utilized these opportunities, and after much exploration, I feel that public relations is finally the right fit.    Though I know I have much to learn yet, I enjoy the practical skills I am learning and the deeper level of understanding towards the whole spectrum of P.R.  Because it is a field that you can go so many directions in I feel comfortable knowing that every day in my career will not have to be the same. And since I tend to have a pretty big bucket list of goals and aspirations I hope to achieve yet, knowing that P.R. is a field that I have the ability to explore different opportunities is exciting and motivating for me.  Motivation and determination are definitely two qualities that an individual needs to be in the field of Public Relations and I have had a lot of experience with my personal development of these characteristics.  Ambition is another quality that I believe is important and one that I feel I possess, as an executive board member of two organizations, Delta Zeta and SPILL, an involved member in many others and a leveraged associate at GUESS; it takes a lot of time and work but with organization, a positive attitude, and trying to remain flexible, I feel anything is possible if you set your mind to it.  Being able to manage a lot of different responsibilities I feel is preparation for a future in the P.R. world and makes me excited of what other experiences there are in store.