Emily Milo

Research Account Manager

(954) 336-4499

PRSSAResearchGroup@gmail.com

INTERNSHIPS OUTWEIGH CURRICULUM

Florida college students value internships and networking over professors and course work

Tampa, December 7, 2009 – Despite an era defined by recession, downsizing, and staggering unemployment rates, some 68 percent of college students feel prepared for life after graduation. However, survey respondents contend that professors and school curriculum are not what is preparing them.

A research team from the Walter E. Griscti chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) at the University of South Florida conducted an opinion poll of college students using Facebook and Twitter. The team surveyed more than 300 Florida college students.

Asked to rank the most important preparation tool for life after graduation, 48 percent claimed internships, while 30 percent indicated networking. However, only 6 percent of students found professors and curriculum most important.

“Excelling in the classroom isn’t enough anymore,” said Michael Brito, a senior at the University of South Florida. “The focus is no longer on papers and textbooks, it is on finding a good internship and networking with the right people.”

Some 81.5 percent of respondents claim that a quality education is important when it comes to getting a job or going to graduate school. Survey results reveal that students recognize the importance of obtaining a college degree, but are no longer depending on professors and curriculum alone.

“What defines college for today’s students is much different than what we traditionally view a college education,” said Bob Batchelor, an instructor in the School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. “As these survey results show, the partnership between academic institutions and local businesses and organizations may make or break a student’s shot at future success.”

About the Walter E. Griscti Chapter of PRSSA at the University of South Florida 

Since its founding, the Walter E. Griscti Chapter of PRSSA at the University of South Florida has developed into a top-tier chapter filled with talented students eager to enhance their knowledge about public relations. Involvement in the chapter enables members to network with professionals and peers, learn about internships, hear guest speakers, attend national conferences, publish articles in its newsletter, participate in the national Bateman competition, volunteer in the community, and attend socials each month. The chapter works closely with the Tampa Bay chapter of PRSA and the Tampa Bay chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) to provide numerous networking opportunities for its members. These strong relationships allow members to work face-to-face with those already in the industry. For more information please visit, http://prssausf.webs.com

Find out the results for yourself by viewing our report.

Check out our PSA.

Before today’s class I had a discussion with my mother on the expansion of technology, with social media being on everyone’s mind, and classes focused on teaching everyone these advancements. She began to tell me a story of how her generation saw the future of classrooms. She described the teacher as a hologram and the students sitting in the comfort of their homes, learning their daily lessons through the use of internet. All of this was very futuristic in her mind, but are we starting to progression towards this with the invention of webcams and the free use of Skype?

Skype, a new way to communicate via webcam, is starting to taking over the way people communicate overall. It is free and easy to use while giving you the chance to visually interact with the person on the other line.

Today in our PR Issues and PR Writing class we had the opportunity to Skype with two outstanding professionals, Sydney Owen and Bryan Blaise, who are located in Chicago working for two of the top PR agencies in the country. At first when I heard our professor was taking this endeavor on, all I could think of was how difficult it was for my boyfriend and I to get settled with using Skype. It took us a couple of weeks, if not a month to get the ball rolling. So naturally, I thought this was going to be a disaster. However, to my surprise, it was awesome! Minus some glitches here and there, we were successfully able to talk to two individuals that our professor has been non-stop boosting about; all possible by the creation of Skype. Could universities implant this new way of technology into their everyday classes?

Another case where Skype has been beneficial was seen just a couple of weeks ago with a friend of mine. Due to a recent surgery she had done, her estimated recovery time took a little longer than she anticipated and she was unable to attend her classes. Fortunately, my friend is a genius and asked if she could Skype into class from the comfort of her own home. She was able to stay on top of class discuss and as well as continue with her recovering process. When I heard about this, I began to wonder if this could be the beginning of the future for our college classrooms.

Of course, there are some complications with having classes via webcams and it could take a while for it to realistically catch on. However, after today’s class, and hearing about my friend and her experience with Skyping (is that a word? If not I’m coining it!) into the classroom, I think this could be the start of something great. Maybe it is the beginning of the futuristic thinking my mother’s generation had for classrooms.

The report can be found here

You can find the recordings of the interviews in my shared files —->

ENJOY!

Week after week we are given the opportunity to hear a guest speaker talk about their endeavors as a PR practitioner.  I gain a lot of knowledge from their experiences and even end up re-evaluating if PR is the right choice for me.  I spend most of my time listening to the guest speaker and, because of my lack of knowledge on the practice of PR, I am hesitant to ask any questions (wrong I know).  However, if I think of something with sustenance, I find their email and send them my question.  Because I am not sure if PR will be my future venture, I take each guest speakers’ story and try and relate it to my own.  However, I can’t help but wonder what others in my class are gaining for the insight being laid upon them from these speakers. 

Let me describe the typical guest speaker experience in my classroom:

• First of all, the guest speaker goes on about how experienced he or she is, which ends up making me feel like the size of a pea.  It is quiet amazing what some of these people accomplish and it is very inspirational for hopeful PR professionals. 
• They continue by giving some helpful tips on how we should be spending our time in college to prepare for the “real world”.  I take most of my understanding from the information given here. 
• Finally, the speaker asks the class if they have any questions.  Like I mentioned before, I can never come up with any clever questions, and if I did later on, I would email them. Although, I wish I could come up with something just for the sake of sanity for these speakers, as the questions being asked are almost insulting to the speakers experience and time they have given to speak to our class. 

Typical questions asked are along the lines of:

• “How should my resume look?” 
• “What do you look for in an interview?” 
• “Should I include this or that on my resume?”

 All these structural questions are important at some point in our college career, but not necessary as of now.  We are there to learn about the practice of public relations, not how to get a job.  This is not a seminar or work shop on resume building.  If I were a PR professional and spent my day speaking to a class, I would find these questions irrelevant, unless I bring up how to structure a resume and how to excel in getting the perfect PR job. On the other hand, I want to give credit to those that do ask sensible questions that merit an answer (which is more than I can say for myself).  There are a handful of students that understand what they are talking about, and ask appropriate questions that go along the lines of what the speaker is saying.  Yet I am still baffled by the mindless, almost zombie state that most students are in… I feel like there is more to what these speakers have to offer, and my peers are already worried about how they are being perceived in the industry rather than learning the industry itself.

I understand that we are all still learning the tricks and trades of PR and want to gain as much information as we can, but I think learning how to construct our resumes or how to present ourselves for a job interview that we know very little about at this time in our college career, as we are still just learning the basics, is the wrong way to go when given the chance to speak with a PR professional.

As Batchelor stated in class today… GET CREATIVE!

Magazines around the nation have been publicizing the chaotic events of Jon and Kate’s divorce.  There story is no secret the public.  The important question is; how are the children going to be affected by all of this?  

Both Jon and Kate are battling this issue in different ways.  Kate believes that Jon has made mistakes and has hurt their family (they are currently not speaking). He left the family, and it was his decision to separate from Kate, to party it up with what seems like a different woman each week. Jon admits to this erratic behavior and claims he is sorry for his actions and wants to apologize to Kate (through an interview… He can’t go see her face to face?). Kate along with TLC have decided to remove Jon from the show’s title, while only getting little air time on the newly named ‘Kate plus 8′.  I mean lets face it, she is the super mom; where has he been?

In response, Jon has lashed out to end the show all together.  He had an Epiphany? More like his ego was shattered and now he is playing the “daddy card”.  Although his sudden change in behavior seems right on time with his firing from the TLC hit, he brings up a good points in his interview with Larry King that aired yesterday Oct. 4.  He claims the show is a detriment to his children, and his divorce from Kate should not be televised.  As a family, he wants to reconnect.  He believes the show has gone too far, and to that extent, I would have to agree.  I think the kids are at the age where the show could potentially take over there lives. 

My solution to this entire disorder would be to have Kate do her own show.  Kate is worried about not being able to support her children and believes the show is giving them great opportunities.  If she hosts her own show, she could still provide for her children without the messiness of getting her children involved. I believe the public finds her entertaining enough.  With being an author and having her own television show, she could have a great following.  More interestingly, with the children being out of the lime light, Jon can be satisfied and we can all see if that was the real reason of his sudden change in heart, or he is just bitter. 

Read more about Jon’s sudden Epiphany here.

My group monitored T-mobile’s new MyTouch 3G. Here I have given the link to the report:

http://nbradford.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/mytouch-research-report-and-data-table4.pdf

            This morning we had a guest speaker come to talk to us about her over-the-top-extremely-awesome experiences as a college student. As our professor introduced Sophia Hyde to the class, I thought I was going to hear about how difficult it will be for us to achieve the type of success that is demanded upon us as PR students. I could just feel the butterfly in my stomach, thinking to myself “Nicole, don’t let this talk overwhelm you.” The fear of hearing I have to become something I did not want to become started to pull on my heart. Instead, I got one of the most eye opening experiences so far in my college career.

            Sophia Hyde is the Super Woman of media communications and in my honest opinion has done it all. She got a head start with her career as a 16-year-old high school student and has never stopped striving for more. Of course, hearing all of her accomplishments was inspiring in itself, but it wasn’t until she admitted to the class her passion was not mainly in PR, that I soon then realized I do not have to feel stuck in this PR nightmare I am in. I felt as if a weight was lifted off my shoulders and free from my fears.

            Sophia then asked us to start a career in something we enjoy. Find what it is we want to do and focus on that. Thought after thought came barreling through my mind, but nothing was coming full circle. I have been so blinded by all the talk about agencies and social media, as well as GET AN INTERNSHIP OR YOU WILL DIE (well at least that’s how it sounds in my mind). I tried to block all of those pressures out of my head and concentrate on what makes me who I am. I began to think about my all the charity work my mother and I have done together and how I enjoy to give good advice and help anyone I can. I started to think small, which eventually turned into a big idea. Get ready for it… I want to start my own non-profit organization! I want to help a cause I feel strongly for. I am not 100 percent sure what that cause will be yet, but I have some ideas that I have been brainstorming all day.

            The next step is to find an internship with a non-profit organization, as I push through my remaining semesters in college. I will no longer hold my breath in classes as tears well, because I now have a goal in mind. I have to thank Sophia for opening my eyes and being so kind to take the time to talk to our class. It truly was an inspiring day.

            As I continue my blog under the title “Getting to Know Public Relations,” I almost feel it is not fitting to situations any longer. However, I am planning on using this blog for class assignments. Stay tuned for a new blog, under a new title, for more personal writings.

            As I sat in the advising office to decide what direction I wanted to go in, the advisor asked me some questions on what I was interested in, and what my strengths and weaknesses were. She finally decided that public relations was the direction I should head in. I nodded my head in agreement, even though I had NO IDEA what public relations was even about, but what else was I going to do? All I could think about was Samantha from Sex and the City, and how her career was in public relations, and she seemed to be pretty happy with her life. Now I was on the track to public relations, and as much as I looked up online about the profession, I really could never find what it entailed. It is not until now, two and a half years later, my senior year at my university, do I get to dabble in the know-hows of public relations.

            I want to be able to write this blog to explain how it is someone can go from knowing very little in the field of public relations, to being able to enter the field in one year after graduation. So I invite you on my journey as I start to take the core classes of the public relations sequence. And so far… no, mass communications is not as easy as it seemed.

 
            I am reading a book assigned by one of my professors called The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott. So far I am learning a lot more than I expected from just the first three chapters. His book is what inspired me to write this blog. I am excited to read more books like these as the semester continues.