Light Bulb

I am in the midst of searching for a Public Relations internship. This search has really made me think about my future and what my educational experience has prepared me for.

All through out my college career I have dreamed of working with a non-profit organization. Throughout my career as a PR student I have had the opportunity to volunteer with many non-profits and get hands on experience. Even though I had the deep desire to go into non-profit, I never really knew for sure what kind of non-profit I wanted to work with.

While preparing for my internship I have tweaked my resume several times creating a few different versions of my resume. One thing remains constant in every resume that I have and that is experience in non-profit health care. I never really did it on purpose or had this underlying drive to only work with health related non-profits. I have done PR volunteering with a nonprofit health clinic, a pregnancy center, and I have done several research projects relating communications and health.

Looking at my resume in this new light has given me a much clearer direction in the kind of non-profit I would like to work for. It was like a light bulb went off in my head that reminded me of how much health care interests me. It seems I found direction even when I wasn't looking for it.

Always Learning!

For my practicum this semester I am working on the 1st Annual Middle Georgia Student Diversity Conference. This has given me a new side of Public Relations. I have worked on event planning before, but not this scale of event planning.

One valuable skill I have learned is learning how to write a letter addressing a business. One of my responsibilities as a practicum student is to be the Publisher Liaison. I am in the process of contacting publishers to attend the event. I have created a professional letter inviting them to attend and also to sponsor the event.

Also I have learned how to work with a lot of people on one project. There are many people involved in the conference. I am learning how to take initiative and see what needs to be done, before someone has to ask me to do it. They all are wearing different hats in the event and it is my responsibility to make sure that the publicity side is taken care of.

In working with this event and events/projects I have learned to adapt a new kind of time management. One that is laid out very well in this article from Bizmore by Eric Reyes . On of the biggest things I have learned is not to check my email constantly, but rather to schedule when I check my email, because otherwise I will spend time responding to emails when there are more timely things to be done.

The conference is not until April and I am looking forward to more opportunities I will have grow as a public relations professional.

Twitter Challenge

This week my Public Relations Campaigns class was assigned a Twitter Challenge. We were challenged to start using twitter as means on networking and also to expand our tweet capabilities. 5 tweets a day doesn't seem that difficult at first. It doesn't seem that difficult, until it is the end of the day and you feel that you have nothing of any worth to share with the world. The true difficulty of this challenge was to use twitter as a meaningful tool of communication, rather than just a place for ambiguous thoughts.

Twitter has the power to connect the masses, but also it has the unique power to connect individuals who would otherwise never be connected. A part of the challenge was to follow more public relations professionals. I have been actively trying to follow more people and companies in the PR industry, the advertising industry and the news industry.

Several professionals have started following me back which in turn makes me reevaluate the image I am portraying on my twitter page. Having personal tweets are just fine, but if they portray me in a negative light, then my followers will see that. If I am counting on my followers to provide networking opportunities then I should be very careful how I package myself on Social Networking sites. I should try to present myself in the best way possible, not just avoiding a negative image, but building a positive image. I need to make it a goal to use thoughtful, insightful, and honest tweets to build my repuation. I don't need to pretend to be someone else, I just need be professional.

I look forward to continuing to use Twitter and other social netorks to build my repuation and to make connections.

PR in Action

Last night, December 5th, I participated in a Holiday Acoustics Concert held at Blackbird. It was planned by Tyler Pearson. He put together a group of musicians to play to help raise money to buy Christmas Gifts for some of the kids that attend Kid's Ministry. The band consisted of Mike Palombo, Jami Smith, Tyler Pearson, Jonathan Chancey, and myself. We played some original pieces, some covers and Christmas songs as well.

This was PR in action because of our use of social media. This event was proof to me that the best way to reach College age people is through facebook. A Facebook event and word of mouth got enough publicity for us to have a sold out show. 115 people crammed into the basement of Blackbird. We also raised enough money to buy atleast 8 kids the presents that they asked for.

It was a really fun night! And definitely a lesson in how powerful social media is.

Anti-Binge Drinking Campaign

I created an anti-binge drinking advertisement. The assignment was more difficult than I first anticipated. Not only is it extremely important to know how to execute an advertisement, it is important to do thorough background research. Due to errors of uploading this is not the completed ad, but it is the picture that used.

I started my background research by learning about binge-drinking and specifically binge drinking in college. I then researched why people like to drink. Some people drink to forget their worries, to have fun with friends, to be more comfortable or to fit in, just to name a few. I then started to research what it is that people love about college, by talking to friends. I got a lot of different answers so it was difficult to narrow down the topics. People said things like, “I love college because of the friendships I have made,” or “I love college because of the life long memories that it brings.” After my research I decided to make my target audience 18-24 year old females. I had the most background research and also could relate.

My first thought was to go along with the whole idea that college is the best four years of your life. Most college girls come to school hoping to meet lifelong friends, have fun, meet new and exciting people, experience life in a new an adventurous way. My first idea was to make a scrapbook like ad chronicling the life of a party girl. She would be wasted and aloof and the slogan would be, “Best four years of my life.” I started my photo shoot with that in mind.

I recruited several of my roommates and friends to dress up and enact several scenes of people partying with alcohol. Then I took several shots of people suffering the consequences of the overconsumption of alcohol such as, a hangover, unwanted sexual advances, and passing out.

After creating a scrapbook like ad, I changed my mind about the theme. While the overall message was clear, the pictures were not strong enough to portray binge drinking as a negative. In fact some of the pictures looked like the people really were having the time of their lives.

So it made me analyze some of the other consequences that binge drinkers encounter. The one that rang with the most resonance was the idea that by partaking in binge drinking you won’t remember anything. Now at first not remembering can seem like a good idea, but not when college is supposed to be the best four years of your life. Also I spoke to a lot of people who although they don’t remember what they did when they were drunk, they still suffered negative consequences. That is how I came up with the slogan, “The night I can’t remember…but wish I could forget.”

This slogan can target any college age student, but mainly serves to target female drinkers who did something they regretted after getting drunk. It also serves to remind them that they might do something they regret when they are drunk.

The picture in the advertisement is actually two pictures superimposed. One is a soft focus picture of alcohol and the other is a picture of a girl hugging the toilet after a night of partying. The two pictures together act to make the images a little bit blurry. The blurriness of the picture is supposed to serve as a double meaning. The girl’s memory is blurry because of the “blurry” alcohol.

As far as the execution of the ad was concerned I wish that I was more skilled on the computer. I would really like to gain more computer skills and learn how to create visually appealing advertisements.

This advertisement taught me the importance of research, the importance of brainstorming and the importance of being willing to change to your plan.

Relay For Life Kickoff

Last Tuesday, after months of planning, we finally executed the Relay For Life Kickoff. The event was a huge success! The theme "Celebrate a Memory" was carried out throughout the entire evening. A beautiful slideshow created by Keri Allgood and Andrea Lowery that honored cancer survivors throughout Baldwin County. There was not dry eye in the room. The slideshow reminded everyone of why RLF is so important. More than just "Celebrating a Memory" the event really celebrated life!

It was an honor to participate in RLF and I had a great time working with my classmates! I grew a lot closer to all of my classmates in planning this event and on the night of the event it really showed. By knowing each other, we know each other strengths which made us much better equipped to pull of the event.

I hope that RLF continues to have a great season! I hope the powerful commencement will give them the inspiration they need to have a great Relay!

Jamie's Story

Prior to April 19, 2005, the idea of cancer never crossed Jamie Ekstrom’s mind. He was an active 16 year- old junior in high school. He had a job, ran track, did cross-country, competed on the swim team and loved music. He was a typical easy-going teenager.

At the end of Jamie’s junior year of high school, right before prom he developed a high fever and started having flu like symptoms. After waking up one day with intense pain throughout his whole body, he went to the doctor for testing. Immediately the doctor saw a problem with his lab work and sent him to the hospital. Jamie spent four days in the hospital as the doctors tried to find out what was wrong. Finally on April 19, 2005 Jamie was diagnosed with A.L.L. or Acute Lymphoid Leukemia. That week Jamie was transferred to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and began his battle against cancer.

“The first thing I asked my doctor when he told me about the treatment, was when I was going to be able to run again,” said Jamie. “Being told I wasn’t going to be able to run senior year was one of the hardest things. In high school running was what kind of defined me. I stayed on the cross-country team and worked as a trainer, but I couldn’t run in the fall.”

Jamie had a long road of treatment ahead of him. He began with chemotherapy treatments every week, and then he went down to treatments every other week and finally he went to having chemo on a monthly basis. This went on for three years. Jamie responded well to treatments, but it was not easy.

“I had long hair and it started falling out,” said Jamie. I was able to hold onto it until the end of junior year and then I had to cut it short, three weeks into summer I had to shave it totally off. That was tough. The hardest part of having cancer was looking like I had cancer.”

Jamie began his freshman year at Georgia College & State University within the first year of his treatment. He lived in the dorms and traveled back home once a month for chemotherapy.

“I really wanted to go,” said Jamie. “Lots of parents probably wouldn’t send their kids to college with cancer. Family played a huge, huge part in my recovery. Going through something like this can either break a family apart or pull them closer together. It really drew us closer together. It helped me understand the love of a parent.”

Starting college for most freshmen is challenging enough, but undergoing grueling rounds of chemotherapy added a whole new layer to the meaning of the word challenging. The chemo compromised his immune system and Jamie had to deal with meningitis, pancreatitis and numerous hospitalizations. Finals sent Jamie into the hospital every semester, but he kept on going.

Jamie attributes his faith as a driving force in his life.

“ I tried my best to focus on the positive,” said Jamie. “From the beginning I knew I was going to beat it. Faith is what really drove a lot of things. Prior to that I was thing that got me going, but when I was diagnosed I kind of made a deal with God. I prayed that if He could heal me I would devote my life to Him. From that day on I knew it was not in my hands anymore.”

On August 3, 2008 Jamie finished his last treatment. Jamie is planning to get a tattoo of the dates 04/19/05 and 08/03/08 to commemorate the day he was diagnosed and the day he beat cancer. Next April will mark the fifth anniversary of his diagnosis and at that point he will be considered cured of leukemia. Right now Jamie is focusing on living in the moment and planning for his future. He is graduating in May and plans on attending graduate school to become a counselor. He has a love for people and hopes to counsel pediatric cancer patients.

“I’ve learned that people are what really are important,” said Jamie. “Most everything else that seems important doesn’t really matter. Spending as much time with the people you care about is what really matters.”