PRSSA members win student competition
By Abby Adragna
Five members of the University of Indianapolis Public Relations Student Society of America attended the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC ) Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, Oct. 14-16 and won the conference’s first-ever student competition.
Seniors Michelle Miller, Ruth Shirley and Alicia Tuszynski, junior Alison Hernandez and freshman Kierre Childers spent their fall break at the IABC conference attending sessions on various business communication topics, as well as competing in the student competition. Assistant Professor of Communication Rebecca Deemer attended as their faculty advisor.
According to Tuzsynski, UIndy PRSSA vice president, about 50 students from five different schools attended the conference this year, which is twice the number who usually attend.
The first part of the student competition involved sitting down with a professional client and discussing a problem that the organization is facing. UIndy’s client was Cancer Free Kids, a nonprofit organization that raises money for childhood cancer research in Cincinnati. Tuzsynski said the organization’s problem involved trying to figure out a way to increase donations to help fund cancer research.
According to Miller, UIndy PRSSA president, each group had 30 minutes to sit down with the client and learn more about the organization and the problem. The groups then had one hour to work together and come up with a strategic plan and a professional presentation to present to the rest of the group and to the client.
The students evaluated each other’s groups on a one-to-five scale, and UIndy’s group was the only one to receive all fives, according to Tuzsynski.
“We all have great personalities. We’re fun, and we can interact with the crowd,” she said. “We just went up there, and honestly, we did awesome with it. People were actually with us; they were really intrigued by us. So it was really cool.”
According to Deemer, the competition was a great way for the students to use various skills they’ve learned at UIndy.
“It was just kind of a way to force them to quickly use their education and their instinct and their know-how to be able to say, ‘You know, if this really happened in the real world, I could do it this quickly if I had to,’” Deemer said. “And obviously, since they won, they did a great job. I mean, it was very apparent who the winner should be. So it couldn’t have turned out better.”
The IABC conference was the first activity the UIndy PRSSA chapter participated in since becoming an official organization on campus in late August.
According to Deemer, she and some students tried to start UIndy PRSSA last year, but their application was held up.
“We were trying to conduct activities last year, but we weren’t allowed to conduct certain activities and promote ourselves as an official PRSSA organization because we weren’t yet,” Deemer said. “So we were together as a group meeting, but we weren’t really a PRSSA chapter at that point.”
PRSSA is the student organization of the Public Relations Society of America.
Deemer said the purpose of the organization is to provide networking opportunities and professional resources for students. She said PRSSA also is helping establish a public relations culture at UIndy like that of the television, radio and journalism areas in the communication department.
Along with Miller and Tuzsynski, the organization’s other officers include Shirley as secretary, senior Danielle Richardson as treasurer and senior Willie Little as PR official.
Ray Compton, who has done PR work for the Colts, Ice and Pacers, serves as the UIndy PRSSA professional advisor.
The organization is currently working on two projects. The first is the Bateman Case Study Competition, which involves submitting a strategic plan for a corporation. If selected, students get the chance to present their plan in front of the corporation in New York.
The UIndy PRSSA chapter also is working on planning an event for the spring semester. According to Miller, the event will be for all students.
“We are going to invite other PRSSA chapters, such as Butler and Purdue,” Miller said. “We [also] want to invite guest speakers from the community to talk about different topics such as how every organization can use PR, how to gain media and how to deal with a crisis.”
According to Tuzsynski, PRSSA already is growing at UIndy, and she hopes to see more people join. The organization requires members to pay dues of $60 per year, and the group usually meets two Mondays each month at 9 p.m. Students from any major are welcome, she said.
“We find that marketing and PR people are more interested [in PRSSA], but we would like any student on campus,” Deemer said. “It’s not at all exclusive. We welcome any student and would love that because they can bring in different viewpoints. [Also] people who maybe one day want to start their own business and want to be an entrepreneur, they could really benefit from just understanding more about public relations. We would love it if other majors would join in.”
