After going virtual last year, the annual PRSA Student Day event was back in person at Cleveland State University on Friday as students from six Greater Cleveland universities networked with communication professionals.
The Public Relations Society of America works with local universities to put on the event each year. This year's topic was “Public Relations Technology Trends to Shape 2022” and featured speeches from Cathy Belt (Cleveland Foodbank), John Hubbard (Cleveland State University), Nikki Hannaway, Bailey Purpura and Amber Zent (Marcus Thomas LLC), Joel Hammond (Hyland Software) and Valerie Thompkins (author).
Topics covered included purpose-driven campaigns, AR, VR and AI, influencer marketing, social media, PR skills and branding.
“It’s a great way for students to connect with professionals in the field,” Professor Beth Thomas and organizer of the event said. “Some have even brought job postings and internships so it’s a great way to get a leg up and meet some of these people and apply to some jobs.”
A member of the Cleveland Chapter of PRSA and adviser to CSU's PRSSA, the university's PRSA student chapter, Thomas recently won the PRSA's Davis Young Award for Exceptional Mentors. The award citation lauded Thomas for her excellence in "mentoring PR students/professionals through hands-on instruction and support."
Thomas led a team of CSU students in the CSU School of Communication promotional communication capstone to organize and promote Friday's event. Seniors Emily Shields, Alyssa Calfee and Kristina Markulin created content and managed the @csuschoolofcom Instagram page, created flyers, posters and a press release to promote the event.
“It was nice to see people from other schools since we haven’t gotten to have events like that and the speakers were all really great,” Shields said. “The day went by really fast, they were all really interesting and I feel like they touched on all different aspects of PR.”
Students from CSU, Kent State, Mount Union, Baldwin Wallace, Ashland University and John Carroll also had the opportunity to have a professional headshot taken and have their resumé reviewed by professionals
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