By Leke Ajenifua Every student who is looking to step into the field of Public Relations (PR) should have the opportunity to get practical experience and on the job training before graduating. What better way to do this than actually working for a PR agency?
In a student PR firm, students gain experience on how to relate with clients in a professional way. Clients receive free or reduced services. Clients also have the opportunity to mentor the PR para-professional which helps to create an environment where students are able to make correct mistakes and not have a negative backlash. Boston University has one of the most prolific student-staffed PR agencies that has been on-going for the past 41 years. They provide services for a mission-driven and commercial organizations as well as government entities. For example they have worked with the Boston Blades, the only professional women's hockey team in the USA. They also had a long lasting relationship with the famous Ben & Jerry's ice cream company. These are two major organizations that students have had first-hand encounters with and the opportunity to showcase what they have learned in the classroom. The PR students at Boston University are required to take both the PRLab class and Public Relations internship, so they are well prepared for actual PR agency work. However, not all schools have the resources or strong Public Relations departments like Boston University. It should be a point for all schools with a public relations major to have a PR agency so as to give students real world public relations experience. Source: https://www.bu.edu/prlab/
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By Isaiah Norwood There are various positives and negatives when working with a student run public relations firm. Many companies and agencies would probably dismiss the suggestion of working with a firm ran by college students, especially a well-established company. From a student’s perspective of course, it is great because of what it could possibly do for those students and their careers later on in life. Clients who once were students and/or who are trying to make it in their career field, may recognize the value of working with a student firm. Public relations is a competitive work field and students must have competitive skills to gain a public relations job and have a successful career in the field. PROS One pro when working with a student public relations firm is that they have a professor who oversees everything they do. This is good because the professor most likely has a great public relations background which can lead to great advice to his or her students. Secondly, because they are students most of the time you can have a lower budget than a PR Agency would need, leaving more flexibility in your finances. Lastly, working with a student public relations firm gives students the right exposure they need in the public relations field. They can add this experience to their resumes to help them go further in their career fields at a faster pace. CONS The first con of course is that you are working with students, they are not professionals and are still learning. Not to get this confused with acting in a professional manner, they should still act as a professional but as far as experience, that is an area where they lack. While they have a professor that oversees them, they do not always need approval for things they do with their clients. Secondly, when working with a PR firm you want the best possible outcome for a project and working with students with minimal experience can affect the outcome of the project. Not to say that students can’t give maximum effort with a good outcome but if you have a huge project, who are you going to entrust more a student run PR firm or an agency? Lastly, there may not be specializations in a student run PR firm. So if you are looking for a specific area of expertise for a project, a student run public relations firm may not be for you. |
AuthorBowie State University SPR Group Student Blog Archives
May 2022
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