COMM 314 - Career Development Event
One of the best decisions I've made in my college career was joining ODU's chapter of PRSSA, or Public Relations Student Society of America. As a PR major who hopes to succeed in the world of PR after graduation, I can say that being a part of the organization is a very rewarding and beneficial experience for future practitioners. During my relatively short time as a member, I've have gotten the opportunity to meet with real world PR experts, listen to what they have to say about their career endeavors, and have learned valuable lessons and practical skills from the events the organization has held that will help propel my career.
Last spring, we had the amazing chance to travel to our nation's capital to visit the top PR firms in the country, the Edelman and Ogilvy agencies. This was a valuable experience in which I had the opportunity to meet with some great people and experienced employees from both firms. From them, we learned about what you should do to gain the skills employers are looking for, and how you're expected to perform in the PR field and what is necessary to succeed. The trip was inspiring, and alone was worth belonging to PRSSA.
The networking and education enhancing experiences had already been great, but shortly after that trip in the spring I decided, along with a couple of my fellow members, to join the leadership board of PRSSA. I received the opportunity to become the Vice President of the organization, and I took it. Since then, we have been hard at work at achieving our goals for the year, and expanding PRSSA's presence on campus. Between myself, our president, treasurer, PR coordinator, secretary, and new advisor, events are being organized and meetings are being held weekly to assure that all PR and communication majors know of our organization, and can have the chance to build upon their education by becoming a member as well.
My job as VP consists of being there alongside the president to make sure all of our duties are being done, and also have the duty of organizing the annual internship fair. Just over this past summer and the first few weeks of the fall semester, my job as VP has helped me gain event organization skills for my future career, and has helped me develop relationships with leaders of local businesses and organizations through my communication with them and networking. I have really enjoyed the leadership experience thus far, and am looking forward to the future events we hold. Besides the fair in October, we have monthly member meetings, will organize a skill-building session for our members, and are attending the national conference in Boston a few weeks from now. The career developments this organization has already provided me and my fellow board members is pretty astounding.
