Up until now I have tapped into a lot of examples from high school showing my progression into the profession of public relations. But how is college preparing me for my big leap into the field?
The obvious answer is my classes. Syracuse University was my top school when I applied to colleges because of the strong reputation of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. A lot of our professors worked in the field before coming to teach us. This means that we get firsthand experiences as examples for every concept we cover, and we stray from basic, dry textbook learning to instead get better information on what we’ll “actually need to know.” Courses such as PRL214 have improved my writing style and grammar, and classes such as PRL376 have given me hands-on work to create campaigns and use tools that professionals use in the field such as Social Studio. This comprehensive education alone ensures that upon graduation I will be prepared well beyond the satisfaction of future employers.
Another factor that drove me to idolize Syracuse University is the campus public relations firm Hill Communications. It is staffed entirely by students and serves real clients each semester. It’s a fantastic opportunity for undergraduates to gain experience in the field of public relations before they even graduate. I have worked at Hill Communications for two semesters now – my spring semester freshman year and spring semester sophomore year. I have an old blog post detailing my experience working as a public relations intern for the first time and how Covid impacted it that can be found here for further reading. At the end of my first semester working at Hill Communications, I received the MVP Award for my account due to my hard work and dedication as the team’s intern. I always picked up extra last-minute projects and barraged our team’s account manager with questions when I was unsure of how to execute an assignment. This semester I have already stepped up to the role of account executive for my team. This means that in addition to researching and creating social media content for our client, I am also in charge of tracking the time and subsequent expenses that our team accumulates through our work. Clearly, a constant theme for me in Hill Communications is taking on whatever is offered to me so that I develop a well-rounded skill set by the time I graduate. This is also helping me continue to build my leadership skills which, as noted in my previous blog post, are extremely important to me. But the most important thing Hill Communications has done for me, outside of building leadership skills and offering experiences in the field already, is giving me the opportunity to build up an impressive portfolio of diverse work. This is something that absolutely makes me stand out from my peers as very few other schools, if any, offer this opportunity. (If you’d like to view my sample work, it can be found under the portfolio tab).
I have also had many non-major-related experiences here at Syracuse that have prepared me to step into the world of communications. As touched upon previously, being a section leader in the university’s marching band has prompted me to learn how to teach and communicate with a diverse group of people. In addition to this, I am the Leadership Living Learning Community Resident Advisor this year (full description detailed below). This role has placed me in charge of a floor of 30 residents with an interest in developing leadership skills. In addition to fulfilling traditional RA roles, I am also tasked with creating leadership opportunities and acting as a teaching assistant in a leadership course for my residents. Being an RA teaches one a lot about crisis management and communication with a variety of students while also building skills in empathy and functioning with very little sleep.
In summary, Syracuse has many programs that are setting me up for success in the field. Not only are our curriculums top-notch, but the opportunities presented to me, both major-related and not, are shaping me into a well-rounded individual in the eyes of communications. I am building up soft skills such as leadership and communicating with a broader group of people as well as industry-specific skills such as writing press releases and preparing entire campaigns. By the time I graduate, I know that I will be performing at an above-average level for professionals in my field.