Growing up the daughter of a wonderful woman who has done everything from Graphics Design to Public Relations and Marketing, (and who can talk to a brick wall if she has to), I found it very easy declaring a major upon my freshman year at Auburn University.
I am the oldest of three kids, and I have definitely acquired many of my mother's social and communication skills. They just come naturally to me. I can also talk to a brick wall if I had to, and even in high school I knew I wanted to do Public Relations--at the time, though, I was unsure exactly what it was called.
I declared my major at Camp War Eagle (the camp that all incoming AU freshman attend the summer after graduating high school), and it has been a crazy ride ever since the first day of class.
Public Relations as a profession often times gets a bad rep because a few people have messed it up for everyone. Many people view it as a profession that lies and bends the truth to make a company, client or product look better. Little do they know, that's not what it is at all... but there are those people (in ANY profession) who can ruin it for everyone.
I remember back in high school, I was in a pageant interview, and I got asked some kind of question about what I wanted to do when I grew up. Well, of course I knew I wanted to do PR but at the time, I didn't understand how some people viewed it. So my response was something about how I wanted to do PR for a non-profit organization or some company that helps people (I have since changed what type of PR since this interview). When one of the lady judges was quick to snap back with, "Well how can you do good in a company that is supposed to help people if all PR is, is a bunch of lies?" Well lady judge, you had me speechless at this point in time, and maybe because I wasn't quick to respond with a brilliant answer, that hurt my score for the pageant. I was happy with my outcome at that pageant though, but I think more than being happy about how I placed among the other girls, I was challenged to find out more about why that lady judge had said what she said. Maybe she was trying to offend me or maybe she had a bad experience with PR, but it sure did lead me to search for the answer to many questions and research more about PR. After that challenge, I knew it was for me.
So here I am today, a senior at Auburn University majoring in public relations with a focus in marketing. Many people that meet me after knowing my mom think it's because I'm her daughter. Well, maybe I acquired her communication skills and her outlook on situations, but PR is just so fascinating and it's a different type of problem solving.
Speaking of problem solving, why are PR and communications majors so bad at math? I swear if you give us a long division problem, it would take five of us working on it together to figure it out and we would still have problems... and decimals... don't even think about throwing those into the mix, haha. But give me a case to work on and a campaign to design, and I'm all there. Group projects, speeches and research...buddy, I'm all about it. I just don't understand why math is such a problem in our major. I guess that's why people like my roommate/best friend that I've grown up with are so gifted in that area. She enjoys it... so it's all hers!! To me, finance and numbers = BLAH.
Another question I have about PR... why is it about 95% females and 5% males? It may not be like this everywhere because I see many PR professionals who are males, but at AU, this is the case. The percentages may even be more drastic than that. I can't figure it out, but some people outside of our major think that PR is one of those degrees you get to obtain your "MRS" degree. I'm not really sure what they are thinking because this semester I am in charge of a image campaign for a neighboring city, writing for The Corner News and The Auburn Family Social Network,which I also serve as an administrator. I'm designing my personal Web site, learning how to design a mobile version of my Web site and learning how to use all of the Adobe Suite programs proficiently. That is all in only 2 classes. That doesn't include all of the journalism, marketing and communications classes I've taken and the PR classes where I've conducted and reported research for a company over the course of a semester and designed a media kit for a company. This is real-life guys. What I'm doing now will be what I'm doing after I graduate. I feel I am totally prepared to handle a crisis after taking Case Studies and Ethics in PR, and having to ROPE model every case in the book plus the 'supplemental packet' my teacher added to the curriculum. Can we please throw one of those other students in a different major into my shoes for a semester. They would take back their statement about how PR is a "MRS" degree.
So here I am today. A senior with so much knowledge and passion for a profession, yet I'm stuck wandering what comes next.
Well, in an ideal world, I want to one day be doing publicity in the music or entertainment industries or doing PR for one of the companies that produces awards shows. Oh, the day I get to attend the Country Music Awards because of my job will be the day I know I have accomplished my dream. I know I can get there. It may take awhile, but I'm willing to work and network and learn the ins and outs of PR and the music industry to get there. Everyone has to wait their turn I think.
For now, I'm planning on interning in the summer or fall and finish my last three classes which ever semester I choose not to intern. Who knows where I will end up interning, but I hope it is somewhere where I can jump in and learn some interesting information!
This is my personal blog and I may share random information about my life or cool articles I read. I LOVE social media and I like to share every article about it. It continues to grow and as long as it's growing, the only thing a PR student can do is to expand their knowledge about it and grow with it.
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