THAT’S
GOOD
PR
November 2014
PRSSA Officer Contact Information
President + Firm Director
Amy Fairbanks
afairbanks@atu.edu
Vice President + Assistant Firm Director
Hailey Canada
hvigil@atu.edu
Secretary + Firm Account Executive
Alivia Biggs
abiggs2@atu.edu
Treasurer
Lilia Rodriguez
lrodriguez1@atu.edu
Action Team
Members:
Karen Maradiaga
Shelby Reding
Publicity Director
Leslie Jones
ljones49@atu.edu
Adviser
Dr. Hanna Norton
hnorton@atu.edu
Letter from the Editor
Written by Leslie Jones
Hello
to all! These past two months have been busy for all of our PRSSA members. We attended the PRSA
workshop day in Little Rock and had both KD Reep and Heide Harrell speak to chapter members. Amy,
Hailey, and Lili had an especially exciting month as they attended the PRSSA National Conference and spent
five days in Washington D.C. In this issue, some of our officers discuss these events and will offer you their
recap of what they thought to be the most interesting points.
Member of the Month
Sam Hoisington is a fresh face to our organization. While most of us have
been a part of Tech’s PRSSA chapter since spring 2014, Sam joined early this
semester and has been a great asset to our team. He is currently managing the
Williamson Dining Room Facebook and their weekly free dinner contest. So
lets learn a little more about this member on the rise.
How did you get involved?
I got involved in PRSSA after Dr. Norton came to visit my journalism class. I
saw the inherent value of the professional networking and development that
involvement in PRSSA offers.
What do you hope to contribute?
I hope to assist in the growth of Platinum PR, especially the online community management aspects that are so very
important to public relations efforts.
What is a fun fact about yourself that you would like to share with the group?
I am a certified teacher’s aide and I can bob my adam’s apple up and down at a very rapid rate.
National Conference
Written by Hailey Canada
I have a long bucket list of places that I want to travel.
Washington D.C. is pretty high on the list, and so when I
found out that PRSSA National Conference 2014 would
be hosted at our nation’s capital, I knew I had to go.
Amy Fairbanks, our Chapter president, Lilia Rodriguez,
our treasurer, and I, our vice president, made the
arrangements to attend. We paid for registration, applied
for travel expenses from Arkansas Tech and booked
our hotel room for five nights – Oct. 9 through 14.
I was a lot more nervous on Oct. 9 than I thought I would
be. I had never been on an airplane before, and I’m absolutely
terrified of heights. But, an airplane trip was on my bucket
list, too, so I was determined to “suck it up” and not be
scared. We flew to Atlanta and then to D.C. with no trouble.
Our first day there, we were free to explore. And oh,
how we explored. We visited the Lincoln Memorial
(and obviously each had our picture made with Abe),
we saw the reflection pool and we walked all the way to
the Washington Monument. (It doesn’t look that far
away, but it really is.) We visited the different buildings
of the Smithsonian. Our only disappointment was that
the giant T-rex exhibit was closed. Lili and I compared
everything we saw to Night at the Museum. After
walking for what seemed like forever, we arrived at the
Capitol. It was very cool to be in such an important place.
The next day, National Conference started. Colleges
from around the nation gave presentations about what
their Chapters were doing. We learned about a mentor/
mentee program, student-run firms and event planning.
That night, we had a welcome ceremony, and there was
a dance. It was one of the coolest things to see people
from literally all over the country, with many different
backgrounds, all do the Cupid Shuffle together. It
started the dance off right, and then we danced all night.
The next day, the three of us split up after breakfast. We
all had certain topics we wanted to hear about, and it was
a great chance to learn from people outside of our state. I
went to a nonprofit session. Jennifer Byrd, national director
of communications for the Salvation Army, spoke about
why she is in the line of nonprofit and about the national
versus regional duties for workers. Amy, who is interested
in medical PR, listened to John Seng, founder and CEO of
Spectrum, speak about making technical language clear to a
public audience and the importance of getting it right. Lili
went to a session about entertainment PR, where Priscilla
Clarke of Clarke & Associates, LLC, and Nicole Garner
of The Garner Circle, LLC, spoke about their experiences
with celebrities and dealing with media and crises.
Throughout the week, many other sessions were offered. I
heard from Rebecca Timms, a publicist for the Philadelphia
Seventy-Sixers, at a sports PR session, Kent Jarrell from
APCO Worldwide and Pat Philbin from Crisis1 at a crisis
communications session and visited with many different
representatives from companies like General Motors, Dow
Chemicals and Discovery Channel at a career exhibition.
It was a great way to figure out what I am interested in,
specifically. For instance, I now know I never want to do sports
PR, which has always been an option in the back of my mind.
The International PRSA Conference was taking place
across the road from our conference. They invited us to
one of their general sessions. We heard from Amy Robach,
a news anchor on Good Morning America. Robach was
the most articulate and knowledgeable speaker I’ve ever
had the pleasure to hear. She is a strong woman who puts
everything into her work, and she’s passionate about what
she does.
One of the best parts of our trip was meeting Ryan
McShane, a Tech alum. He now is an account supervisor at
Taylor, a firm in Charlotte, North Carolina. In his speech,
he said that it pays to go to a small school, because you can
be a big fish in a small pond. We were able to speak to him
for a few minutes after his presentation, and he was even
nice enough to take a picture with us.
On our last day, we had some free time, and so we
decided to go on a short shopping trip. We also finally
got to see the White House! It was a nice break from the
business setting to be able to see more of D.C.
If you get a chance to attend National Conference, go, no
matter where it is. While I was lucky to be able to mark
a destination off of my travel bucket list, the conference
would’ve been great and worth the money no matter
where it was hosted.
KD Reep
Written by Leslie Jones
KD Reep, president and CEO of Flywrite
communications, was gracious enough to speak to our
chapter on Sept. 24.
Reep founded Flywrite in 2003 after working at Stone
and Ward for two years and realizing that the agency’s
work environment was not fit for her personality. She
now loves her job and jokes that she is the best boss she’s
ever had. Reep says she has done nearly equal amounts
of paid and non-profit work through organizations
and business like her church, Dress for Success, Little
Rock Zoo, Arkansas Cornbread Festival, and Entergy.
Flywrite and Reep continue to grow since partnering with
Mass Enthusiasm this past July to become a full-service
agency that can assist client through stages of marketing,
advertising, and placement.
During her session, she shared some great tips with
students about PR and life in general.:
1. Be interested in people and their stories.
2. Take any entry-level job, even if it has no PR influence.
3. If you can’t find a PR job, volunteer.
4. Be helpful, but be balanced. Don’t take away from your
own life.
5. Be proactive. Always monitor what could come out
about your organization.
6. Always be on the offensive, not the defensive.
7. Don’t think there is no one watching, listening to, or
seeing what you do.
8. Separate work time and “you” time.
9. Utilize Twitter and its networking/connections.
We are honored that Reep took time out of her schedule
to come speak to our chapter. She is a woman who
stresses balancing both your fun and professional lives,
which we all can appreciate.
PRSSA Workshop Day
Written by Karen Maradiaga
Arkansas chapter of PRSA
hosted a workshop on Sept.
18 for local PRSSA chapters.
The event was held at the Ron
Robinson Theater in Little Rock.
Students began registering at
1 p.m. for a series of talks they
received from professionals in
the public relations field.
students needed to learn before
they begin their jobs in the field.
The topics included how to use
social media as a tool, pitching
a story, business etiquette,
keeping your clients happy and
the reality of getting a PR job.
Students were given materials
that went along with the lectures
and were also encouraged to
The professionals included take notes.
Denver Peacock of The
Peacock Group, Eileen Denne After the talks, there was a Q&A
of the Arkansas Pharmacists session where students were
Association, Rob Anderson able to share their questions and
of CJRW, Natalie Ghidotti of concerns with the professionals.
Ghidotti
Communications, Many students got to network
Lisa Van Hook of the with those who came. Arkansas
Communications Group, Julie PRSA has helped PRSSA
Robbins from Mangan Holcomb members build relationships
Partners and Brandon Morris of and gain experience through
Union Pacific.
events like these.
The topics covered were chosen
based on the information
Creating a Strong Portfolio
Norton’s
1. As a journalism major,
you need clips demonstrating Nuggetset
you can write. Including school
examples is fine, but published content is stronger.
Write for The Arka Tech, be a stringer for The
Courier, write for The About magazine or seek out
other opportunities.
2. If possible, also prove you have skills beyond
writing. Did you take pictures to correspond with
your story? Include them if they’re good.
3. Have a variety of elements/writing styles in your
portfolio if they best demonstrate your skills. If
you’re a good visual designer, include items from
class or from work. If not, don’t include them.
Instead, put other elements to demonstrate your
versatility.
4. Create a professional email account if you don’t
already have one.
5. Create documents where the header for
your resume also serves as the header for your
letter. It shows a seamless package and a sense of
organization.
6. Have several people review your resume.
Mistakes on it WILL prevent you from getting a job.
I’ve seen it and had to make those decisions.
7. Make sure your cover letter specifically addresses
the job and connect your skills with the job’s
requirements. Be specific.
Heide Harrell
Written by Lilia Rodriguez
Heide Harrell, public relations senior account manager at Stone Ward, came to give us an insight about company
cultures and work personalities. Harrell started off her career working for H. U. Lee Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit
organization. Working for a nonprofit, Harrell learned you have to be passionate about the organization to do the best
job you can.
Harrell then went to work at Delta Trust and Bank, and there she learned about the corporate world. “You constantly
have to think outside the box,” Harrell said.
After working five years in the corporate world, Heide Harrell went to work for an agency. “If you want to learn by fire,
work in an agency,” Harrell said. “It is an intense and fast-paced atmosphere.”
She then decided to leave the students with some advice:
•
Deadlines are key components.
•
READ! The more you read, the better writer you are.
•
Know how to write.
•
NETWORK! NETWORK! NETWORK!
•
It is all about the relationships you build.
PRSSA meetings
It was announced at halftime of the game that our
sign won third place overall!
Members of SPJ and PRSSA joined together to create
a sign for homecoming festivities. “Jerry Tames the
Tigers” is a newspaper-themed sign to embody our
groups’ journalistic talents. We also showed our school
spirit by joining in the tailgating festivities!
Get
Involved
Tuesdays at 1 p.m.
CES 139
Join us for our weekly meetings! PRSSA
meetings involve planning social and
professional events, getting to know other
PRSSA members and learning ways to get the
most out of this student organization. Come
by and see us.
Be sure and check out our social media!
www.facebook.com/arkansastechprssa
@ATUprssa
@atuprssa
Want something in the newsletter? Email ljones49@atu.edu with your submission, ideas and comments.