Seven Things to Do Over Thanksgiving Break
We are lucky as Iowa students to have a WHOLE WEEK off for thanksgiving break, so here are some PR related ideas to fill up some of your downtime over break:
- Check out PRQuickStart.org – This is a free online program that will help you get more acquainted with the public relations field. Try to complete the entire program over break; it shouldn’t take too long and might even be fun.
- Set up an informational interview – Try getting in contact with a company or agency in your area and see if they will let you come in for an informational interview. This is a great way to learn more about a company you might want to work or intern for in the future.
- Start a Twitter account – If you don’t already have a Twitter account, break is a great time to start one up. You’ll have plenty of time to tweet new content every day and work on building your connections. If you already do have a Twitter account, make it your goal over break to get retweeted by a professional in the PR field.
- Perfect Interview – If you have a webcam or can borrow one from a friend, practice your interview skills with the Pomerantz Career Center’s Perfect Interview program. When you get back from break, you can set up an appointment with a career advisor to go over your interview. It is never too early to start practicing for interviews, and this is an easy and free way to start.http://www.careers.uiowa.edu/perfectinterview/
- Volunteer – Check out your local food pantry or crisis center and see if they need any extra help during the week. Holidays are often the busiest time of year for these organizations and they will most likely need extra volunteers. This will look great on a resume and will also help you build connections.
- Blog – Come up with a blog entry about anything you are interested in whether it is related to PR or not. If you don’t have your own blog, post it to the PRSSA blog by contacting Kelly Trettin. Employers are looking for social media savvy students to hire, and blogging is a great way to start.
- Watch the American Music Awards – The AMA’s will be on ABC on November 22nd at 8/7c. Pretend like one of the performers, announcers, or winners is one of your clients; after the show, write a press release for him/her. Yeah, it sounds silly and won’t be published anywhere, but it will give you some practice writing press releases. Use the template we received from Karla Stevenson at our press release workshop and get creative.
Have any other ideas of fun, PR related activities to do over break? Feel free to leave your own ideas in the comment section!
Kelsey Thortsen – Finance Director
New Spring 2010 Exec
At our last meeting, the chapter voted on new exec members to fill the spots left by Brittney Wichtendahl (studying abroad), Danette Kapler (graduating) and Genevieve Krier (graduating). Congratulations to our newest board members:
Paul Spooner: Vice President
Katelyn McBride: Newsletter Editor
Caitlin Peterson: Co-Firm Director
We are looking forward to a great spring semester!
Consider Iowa: PR & Marketing
On Friday, October 30 I was one of 14 students who attended a Consider Iowa road trip through the Pomerantz Career Center. They have these every so often with trips and tours to different businesses in a certain industry. The theme for ours was PR & Marketing; we visited three businesses and had a networking lunch with professionals in the field.
The day started bright and early at 8:30 am. A caravan of UI buses took us to the Johnson County United Way in Coralville, our non-profit stop, where Mitch Overton told us about his experiences in fundraising. A lifelong resident of Iowa City and graduate of the University of Iowa, his job is primarily based on relationship-building. The United Way is in the middle of their annual capital campaign, with their goal for 2009 being $2.73 million. A large percentage of this comes from local businesses that get their employees involved in giving.
When asked about the differences between non-profit PR and a corporation or agency, Overton said that he likes how personal working for a smaller branch can be.
“If I have an idea for something, I can just walk down the hall and talk to my boss about,” he said, “where at other places it could be ‘fill out these forms, then wait a couple weeks…’” He said that being a smaller branch of a nationally known name like the United Way is especially helpful when putting together campaigns, since the national office puts together all of the marketing materials. Overton and the other four full-time employees can then personalize the campaign to most effectively appeal to the people of Johnson County.
Our next stop was the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort. The behind the scenes operations for that place are unreal! Riverside is especially focused on employee relations—they have many incentive programs to promote wellness and exceptional customer service. We met with Riverside’s public relations director, Sharon Haselhoff . She gave us a tour of the facilities, and we then had a Q&A session with employees from all different departments from marketing to accounting. Sharon actually has a degree in political science, but got involved with PR when trying to persuade Washington County voters to vote yes for the casino referendum five years ago.
Lunch was an amazing spread shared in a conference room at Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust with three professionals from the area. Nancy Garberson, who has spoken at our meetings, was there from Marketing and Communications Strategies, Inc. (http://www.mcshome.com) in Cedar Rapids. Dr. Lynn Manternach from Mind Fire Communications (http://www.mindfirecomm.com) was also in attendance, as well as Sherri Lennarson from Banker’s Advertising Company (http://www.bankersadvertising.com), who was the speaker at my table.
Lennarson has worked at Banker’s her entire career, involved in promotional products, or basically anything tangible you can put your company’s name on. Think pens, Koozies, pizza cutters, lip balms—if you come up with a way you want to promote your company, Banker’s can put your name on anything. They’ve recently collaborated with the Avoid the Stork campaign and made the lip balms and cups they hand out on campus.
Promotional products are an interesting way to market because, as Sherri said, “People actually thank you for your advertisement,” when you give them a promotional product. A study they once did showed that almost everyone in a supermarket had at least one pen with a company’s name on it, and most customers could usually tell you exactly what the pen said.
Lennarson was also all about building your personal brand. “What message do you want to convey about yourself?” She has gone so far as to pick a personal color and motto that she hands out on products. We were all given neon green wristlets that said “Having fun and getting things done! For a friend of Sherri Lennarson,” with her contact information on it, full of pocket Kleenex, Shout wipes, and other handy incidentals that can easily be thrown in a backpack.
Our final stop was Metro Studios in Hiawatha—talk about a hidden gem! This company started as a video production place, but now focuses more on marketing. They have everything from a graphic designer, Web developers, and a recording studio, to a room for shooting commercials complete with a green screen, and a full service kitchen where “Metro Moms” come in and bake them cookies! You can check them out at http://www.metro-studios.com
Each place offered so much great advice and insight into the industry, your eyes would glaze over if I tried to blog about it all. So first of all: PLEASE take advantage of opportunities like this through the Pomerantz Center. At first I was unsure that I wanted to devote my entire Friday pre-Halloween to a school trip, but I’m so glad I did. The networking I got to do with professionals in the area was invaluable (the free lunch was an added perk!)
Secondly, there were a few points that everyone seemed to re-iterate.
1. Don’t limit yourself. Most of the professionals we spoke to had no plan to go into PR or took a non-traditional path to get where they are. They all advised to try a variety of things in college to really find what you’re truly passionate about.
2. Take risks. They may not always pay off, but not only will you learn a lot from your failures, future employers love to hear of a time you learned from a mistake and turned it into a growing experience.
3. Find something you love and do it! This may be easier said than done, but those we spoke with all have a contagious passion for what they do. Every single person said they honestly love waking up to do what they do every day—if you’re not happy in life, change it!
By: Brittney Wichtendahl
PRSSA’s Growing Firm
PRSSA’s student-run firm has turned a new leaf this semester. Both Tina Larson and I, co-firm directors, wanted to expand the firm. With some hard work, we managed to generate new interest in PRSSA members and now firm has a 15-member committee! Our new firm members are committed to our clients and together we have accomplished more than expected thus far. With new clients, new members, and a new outlook, firm is well on its way to become nationally affiliated within the next couple of years.
With increased membership, firm has been able to take on more clients because the workload is dispersed. Firm is excited to have five new account executives and a few assistant account executives. Students have stepped up to the plate and volunteered their time and effort in return for public relations experience. Joining firm is a great way to heighten experience in the field as Monica Madura mentioned in her presentation last week. Firm supplies members with bullet points to put on their resumes because students are assigned responsibilities and held accountable for seeing them through.
Currently firm has five clients including: Ponseti Races, American Cancer Society, Colleges Against Cancer/Relay for Life, Polar Plunge/Iowa Special Olympics and Landlocked Film Festival. Ponseti Races was firm’s first event which took place Friday, October 16, 2009. This is a new client to firm. Ponseti Races launched its first 5K race this year to raise awareness of clubfoot and to honor Dr. Ponseti of the UI Hospitals who pioneered a non-surgical procedure to cure clubfoot. American Cancer Society is in the process of creating a Johnson County newsletter, and firm would be in charge of content and design of that newsletter. In conjunction, firm will be assisting Colleges against Cancer with the publicity and promotion for the UI Relay for Life held April 16, 2010. Firm will also be helping Polar Plunge with publicity this year which will take place on March 27, 2010. Landlocked is firm’s summer client, and we will help with publicity and promotions for the Landlocked Film Festival which will take place in August of 2010.
Joining firm is a great way to gain hands-on experience in public relations. This year’s firm growth has excited PRSSA, and we hope to keep on growing.
By: Paul Spooner, Co-Firm Director
Practical Advice from Monica Madura
At our October 28th Chapter meeting, Monica Madura, the Communication Studies Academic Advisor, came to speak. Monica geared her presentation towards job searching and how to prepare oneself for the “real world.” She also offered a valuable question and answer session where members got their most burning questions answered.
Monica suggested that the earlier we start looking for jobs and internships, the better. Not only can you utilize the Pomerantz Career Center’s Employment Expo and Career Shift, but look on the Communication Studies webpage and utilize your network. Some ways to get your network started can range from attending Chamber of Commerce events to talking with your professors here at the University of Iowa.
Once you find a job or internship that you are interested in, Monica talked about the importance of customizing our resumes and cover letters for the specific position. It’s a great idea to make a “master resume” where you list everything you have done. Then once you look at the job description or requirements you can cut and paste on a new document what is most relevant to that job.
The take away message from our speaker was to start job-hunting early, customize your resume, and utilize the resources we have at our fingertips here at the University!
By Shannon Kane
Exec Positions Opening Up!
Sadly, PRSSA will be losing a few great members next semester due to graduation and study abroad. On the bright side, this means that there will be a couple of positions on the exec board opening up! I want encourage everyone to run–even if you have only been in PRSSA one or two semesters–because regardless of how inexperienced you might feel, you will learn along the way and we love getting fresh perspectives on our exec board!
The process for running is simple. At one of our upcoming meetings (date is still undetermined), we’ll hold an election. Anyone interested in a position will give a short speech to the group about what position they are running for and why they want it. I know this sounds intimidating, but you have nothing to worry about! Just make sure you cover these points: what position you want, what experience and skills you will bring to the position and why you want it/think you will do well in it. You could also tell us about any new ideas you have for that position. If you don’t have a ton of experience, just focus on the skills or personality traits you have that will allow you to excel or maybe even talk about a class you’ve taken that would be useful. Dont’ sweat it.
We’ll be discussing the elections more at upcoming meetings and announcing positions that will be open. This is a great opportunity to gain leadership experience. I was only in PRSSA one semester before I ran for exec, and was really nervous about it, but everything worked out. Being in PRSSA, and especially being on exec has been a wonderful experience for me and is one of those things you’ll look back on and be glad you did. I hope you’ll all really consider running for a position. Best of luck!
By: Kelly Trettin, Social Media Editor and Webmaster
Trying to find internships this spring or summer?
On Tuesday, October 20, 2009, I attended a small class led by Amy A’Hearn the communications career advisor. When I say small, I mean small. It was a class size of three people including myself and it was wonderful. The class was all about how to find an internship whether it be for the spring, summer, or fall. She started off the class by asking what our priorities were, what did we want out of the internship? What was important to us, location, paid/unpaid, work environment, work hours, etc? She said the key to finding an internship was first figuring out what you, yourself wanted out of one.
Next, she showed us the Pomerantz Career Center’s website (www.careers.uiowa.edu) and located the Career Guide button which brought up a number of sample resumes, cover letters, letters of inquiry, etc. A’Hearn urged us to look at each of these to begin writing and then advised us to go to walk-in hours at the PCC. During walk-in hours, students can have their resumes reviewed by a peer advisor who will be sure to provide them with tips to improve their resume.
To actually find internships, A’Hearn showed us the Expo website on the PCC’s webpage. This site is used to find jobs and internships with companies who are affiliated with the University of Iowa. The easiest ways to look for jobs is to first log-in, then click on the Jobs button, then Search. A’Hearn said to use the “Major Seeking” button which allows for a wider search of jobs within your major that you may have never considered before. Also, for the “Type” you should select Internships. Then click “Search” and a whole skew of internships appear on the page. Expo also has you upload your resume to the site, so if you do find an internship that interests you, all you have to do is click Apply and your resume is already there. I should mention that Expo does have a one-time fee of $32, but that you can use the site all through college and even after.
Also, on the Expo site is a tab labeled ICE-NET, which is an awesome tool! It has alumni from the University of Iowa who put their job information on the website and then you can look them up and ask them about their current jobs. This is a great tool because it allows you to have an informational interview which is when you get to ask people about their job and find out how they got there. Also, the PCC has a whole page on how to go about have an informational interview, A’Hearn stressed that this was a good way to get to know what a specific job was actually like.
The final piece of advice from A’Hearn was that everyone should start a LinkedIn account! This is like Facebook for big people, the real deal. This is a site where you can upload your resume and talk about all the things you are great at (what could be better!). Just make sure your LinkedIn page is professional!
Hope this helps & Best of luck!
Melissa Rasper—Historian/Alumni Relations
Fund Raising, PRSSA style
What do ice cream, guys in Speedos, fifty cent brownies have to do with each other?
They’ve all been part of some of the many fundraisers we’ve done!
Since joining PRSSA in 2007, I’ve been privy to quite a few creative ideas that have been on the table to get us money for our various chapter needs. A few don’t pan out, and some are less than thrilling, but overall, fundraisers are a great way to get to know your fellow members and make some money that will directly benefit your PRSSA experience.
Previously, we’ve taken shifts at Coldstone Creamery which gives us a percentage of the night’s sales depending on how much ice cream is sold. Hands-down the best part of working there, even for an hour or two, is sampling all of the ice cream. My go-to flavor is oatmeal cookie batter, except for the late falls months when pumpkin ice cream is the only thing you should be eating.
During my freshman year, we did Coldstone night in November—not exactly an ideal time to rake in big bucks on ice cream sales. Timing is a key element when putting on fundraisers, and the next year we were proactive in making sure we were behind the counter during the first week of classes in August.
Personally, my favorite fundraiser was one we just completed. At the intramural co-ed swim meet on October 4th, eight members were awarded $300 for the chapter by being back-up timers one early Saturday morning! We really lucked out in that, although it was a home football game, the intramural meets are shorter and people were able to leave in time to watch the game or continue tailgating. The swimmers were extremely nice and very appreciative of us, and I think I’m not just speaking for myself when I say that particular fundraiser was especially easy on the eyes.
Another of my favorite fundraisers (boy howdy, I sure do like making money) is the PRSSA bake sale in AJB! Not only do I enjoy this because I am ob-SESS-ed with baking, but working at the table gives you great interaction with some of the more colorful characters that roam our hallowed halls. Also, people are super supportive of anyone selling awesome baked goods at bargain-basement prices. The sampling that may or may not go on is also a highlight.
But Brittney, where does this money go? I know you’re asking, so I’ll TELL YOU. As rewarding as the fundraisers themselves can be, what we do with the money is about a million times better. Money for hotels, gas, etc. is needed when we go on agency tours or to conferences, end-of-the-semester banquets and socials, some overhead costs, PR Day, possibly bringing in certain speakers—the list of what we can do with our chapter funds is never ending!
The most important part of fundraising, my PRSSA minions, is that you NEED TO GET INVOLVED. The same five or six people can’t raise all of the money for the entire chapter—everyone needs to pull their own weight. This making money stuff is not hard—it’s really fun and we don’t even notice that we’re working because there’s bonding, there’s laughing, and more often than not, there’s a trip to the Airliner afterward.
If YOU have an awesomely creative idea (or even a really obvious one we’ve never thought of before) please, please, please speak up! We’re always looking for ways to get money for our chapter and get our name out on campus.
By: Brittney Wichtendahl, PR Director
A summer in Italy
This past summer I spent three months in Naples, Italy working with the Camp Adventure Youth Services program. I was able to provide military families with an amazing opportunity for their children, while living in a beautiful location. This program not only offers an amazing trip, but the opportunity to obtain credit hours toward your education.
With the program I spent my days working with children ages 11-13. This was a very unique experience for me as I have never really had such hands-on experience with this age group. We provided a fun environment so the children could unwind and escape from the realities of everyday life. Since they come from military families, the stresses of life can be a little bit more demanding than your typical child.
Aside from the work I did with Camp Adventure, I was able to travel all over Italy. I went to Rome, Venice, Florence, Capri Island and many other breathtaking locations. This was an opportunity I would have never been given if I didn’t get involved with this program.
I truly can’t stress enough how this abroad experience has helped with my growth as an individual as well as my growth as a professional. I think that going abroad is something that every student should participate in, whether it be studying abroad, participating in a program like Camp Adventure, or even taking a vacation. The experiences that you have while in a new culture is something that will stay with you for life.
So I encourage you, as someone with the experience to take any opportunity given to you, because in the end it could be a great chapter in your life!
By Megan McIntyre, Vice President
Summer Internship Provides Great Experience
For much of the school year last year I was like most students trying to find an internship. I waited until the end to start looking and wasn’t very intrigued with anything I came across. I started to think that maybe what I needed was one more summer of fun, being a camp counselor, after all I had just finished my sophomore year and had plenty of time to gain experience, right? I still occasionally sent out resumes to companies I thought looked interesting through the Pomerantz Career Center’s Employment Expo, but never really expected anything to come from it.
It was a Friday afternoon and I had just got home from my job at the UI Hospitals and Clinics when my phone rang from an unfamiliar number. I did recognize the area code as being from around my hometown, so I answered. Little did I know this phone call would lead to the most exciting and challenging summer job I have ever had. The voice on the other line was Patti Freko, the Director of Communications for Feldco Windows, Siding and Doors (a well known company in Chicago). She had received my resume and was interested in scheduling a phone interview with me. After talking to her, we then scheduled a time for me to come in and interview in person, as well as tour the facility. Throughout my time at Feldco during the interview, I became more and more excited about the possibilities that were being explained to me.
I went from being not really sure what to think, to being extremely excited and nervous about waiting and seeing if this amazing opportunity was being handed my way. Eventually, a week later, I got the phone call I’ve been waiting for. I had been selected for this internship.
Summer came closer and closer, and suddenly it was time to start my first day. It was a little intimidating at first, but I quickly became very close to the two other people in my office, the Marketing Assistant, Magali and the graphic design intern, Katie. It was nice to have two people close to my age in the same office. Never once did I feel like it was a chore to go into work, and I absolutely loved every minute of it.
I traveled to Indianapolis and Madison, for business purposes and got the chance to really show off my skills, by getting newspaper placements, articles and press releases picked up by various news sources. Feldco didn’t have a Public Relations department before I came, which made it a very challenging, but fulfilling task. I also worked on sponsorships, events that would help get our name out there, and various aspects of media buying.
I will forever be grateful for the experience I received, as well as the relationships I acquired. It was the best summer job I have ever had, and made my career goals a little more clear. I recommend a summer internship to anyone, and if anyone needs help finding one or has any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
Natalie Dubs
PRSSA Communications Director 2009-2010
