The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) has started back up again at IWU.
Anna Ohashi, IWU’s interim PRSSA treasurer, says that PRSSA provides students with many opportunities.
“This is just honestly a really good opportunity for our (strategic communication) students and marketing and all business students to really just hone in on their public relation skills and be able to get exposure into the professional networking,” Ohashi said. “There are really good internship opportunities and opportunities to connect with professionals and just develop those skills that are gonna be needed in the professional workplace.”
Ohashi said she is excited about the program.
“I’m just really excited for, like, me and, like, other students to be able to have this opportunity because it is a really great opportunity,” Ohashi said.
Ohashi said that the dues are doable for college students.
“So, there are yearly dues that you have to pay in order to be like a committed member and it’s $55 for a year,” Ohashi said. “But when you do the math, it’s actually like under five dollars a month and which is a really great cause. So, I think it’s really doable for college students.”
Dr. Mark Vermilion is a professor and program director of strategic communication.
“I would say that the unique thing that PRSSA does for (students) is it offers them a better connection to the professional world, so they’ll get to know PR professionals,” Vermillion said. “We’ll have speakers come in. We’ll do trips to Indianapolis, Chicago, and other places where they can see PR in operation in different industries.”
Ellie Cornwell is a freshman who attended the PRSSA open house.
“There’s a lot of writing aspects and also a lot of skills that I’ve heard you learn with PRSSA that would be really useful for what I want to do in the future,” Cornwell said.
PRSSA is open to all students.
“It’s not just for (strategic communication) students. Like, anybody interested in reputation management and just learning to develop communication skills can benefit from being a part of PRSSA,” Ohashi said.
