Picture this: It’s the first day of classes and you’re up bright and early to eat breakfast at Shively Food Court before heading back to your dorm to spend two hours showering, doing your hair and putting on a sleek outfit you planned the night before. Finally, you make it to class early and organize your desk with your color coordinated binders.
A week later, you’re waking up ten minutes before class, frantically throwing things in your bag and arriving to class late.
If you’re anything like me, this is exactly how you started your freshman year of college. Every beginning to a new school year, we make plans to start strong and thrive throughout the year. However, what many of us don’t do is make an actual game plan for how we are going to execute and measure our success. Being a member of Scripps PRSSA is your first step to learning to do this. The skills you will gain will help you to have a successful school year.
Since joining PRSSA, I have learned how to go from wanting to be professional, to being professional and how to use my professional development in and out of the classroom. By being an active member of PRSSA, you are already paving yourself a pathway for success.
Having peers that are positive role models and are willing to help you is essential to your success as a student. The people you meet and the friends you will make in PRSSA are a guaranteed positive influences. They are people who have chosen to dedicate their time to bettering their career and growing as a professional and have valuable skills to share because of it. Members are inviting and eager to help in any way they can and you will be taking many of the same classes so they are great study partners too. Paying your dues will also allow you the opportunity to join the mentor/mentee program, where members can gain leadership skills as a mentor, or newer members can learn and ask questions as a mentee. Both will provide you with another student on campus to help you grow and succeed.
PRSSA is targeted at building a professional career through speakers, workshops, networking trips and more. While it may initially seem like a career in the public relations field is the only thing you will get out of it, there is so much personal growth that you will achieve that will apply to every aspect of your life. Since joining PRSSA, I have learned so much more than facts about public relations. I have learned skills on how to work hard, build confidence, work well with a team and so much more. These are skills I know everyone can gain from being a part of such an amazing organization and they are skills you will continue to use for the rest of your life in many different situations.
Samantha Morsink is a junior Strategic Communication major. She is also Scripps PRSSA’s 2018-19 VP of Visual Communication! Find her on Twitter @Samimor23