Posts tagged University of Oregon
14 Helpful Posts for Public Relations Students – Welcome @AllenHallPR!
May 3rd
Whenever I participate in an event for students aspiring to work in public relations, I try to publish a helpful blog post for them to check out. Today, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide‘s Bellevue (Seattle area) office is hosting an agency tour of students from Allen Hall Public Relations, my alma mater’s student-run public relations agency, and I’m lucky enough to speak on a panel of University of Oregon graduates to answer their questions.
After much deliberation on what kind of blog post to write, I’ve decided to raid my blogging history and Twitter favorites to compile a round-up post of tweets and posts that I think are especially helpful for students.
Some of these blog posts and tweets are quite old. I promise I’ve read through them and only included ones that, in my opinion, are still 100 percent true today.
Tweets by others:
“If you don’t figure out what you want to become, someone else will define it for you.” goo.gl/n0ZPI
— Justin Tsang (@justinjtsang) November 8, 2011
10 skills the PR pro of 2022 MUST have bit.ly/N9iuue #happo #prsaPRO #pr
— arikhanson (@arikhanson) June 12, 2012
Top 16 Twitter chats for social media and #PR pros j.mp/KGts3h rt @jeanlucr #sm @glengilmore:
— Lori McNee(@lorimcneeartist) June 14, 2012
Looking for Great Places to Work in #Seattle? ow.ly/hfb7F#jobs
— Pat Rhoads (@patmrhoads) January 29, 2013
An Amaz-ing resume! ow.ly/h9P2B #smcsea #mcdm #uwsmc
— Derek Belt (@derekbelt) January 26, 2013
Blog posts by me:
- 2008 Student vs. 2011 Professional: The PR Industry and 2008 Student vs. 2011 Professional: PR Agency Job Duties - Note: I’m happy to report that entry-level public relations hiring is better than when I wrote those posts. Some agencies now have a shortage of good intern candidates. Everything else about those posts are still true today.
- Student Interviews Me About PR and China
- How to Survive the Undergraduate to Post-Graduate Transition
- Tips for Students on Finding Post-Grad Jobs Abroad – Part 1: Before You Leave
- Tips for Students on Finding Post-Grad Jobs Abroad – Part 2: Visa Advice
- Tips for Students on Finding Post-Grad Jobs Abroad – Part 3: Once You’re There
- NGO Public Relations in Uganda – Interview with Jessica Lomelin
- UO PR Grads Who Now…Teach English in Korea
Students and aspiring public relations professionals, let me know if you have any questions about working at Waggener Edstrom Wordwide in the comments or by emailing me at beth dot evans 4 at gmail dot com.
Video of Singers from my American University is Viral in China
May 25th
Prominent in student life at my alma mater are student groups who perform pop song covers a Capella. The men’s group, On the Rocks, is active in social media as a promotional tool; they have a Twitter account and broadcast their performances live online. About a month ago, they uploaded a performance of Lady GaGa’s “Bad Romance” with annotations onto YouTube as a fundraiser for their trip to Los Angeles to audition for the NBC television show “Sing Off.” The video currently has more than 3 million views.
Last night, as I was watching the original music video for “Bad Romance” on the Chinese site Youku, I noticed On The Rocks’ performance video, uploaded by YoutubeSpace, as a suggested related video. The video has more than 300,000 views and about 300 comments (in Chinese). I shared it on my own RenRen and Q Zone profiles (with a note that this was my alma mater, of course), then found out one of my good Chinese friends had already shared it on his RenRen as well before learning that the video had any relation to me whatsoever. On RenRen, the video has more than 41,000 share views and 233,000 views.
On the Rocks online:
Official site
Twitter: @uoontherocks
Facebook: OTR rocks my socks
Live broadcast
Watch the video on Youku, YouTube, or both below:
And if you want to compare the choreography and arrangement, here’s Lady GaGa’s version. (Nudity warning for those who haven’t seen it already.)
Tips for Students on Finding Post-Grad Jobs Abroad – Part 1: Before You Leave
Jan 15th
This is the beginning of a three-part series inspired by students’ and recent graduates’ requests for my advice on how to get a job offers abroad immediately after graduation. The series topics are Before You Leave, Visa Advice and Once You’re There, in that order.
Update 12/28/2010: Jessica Lomelin of my blogroll also wrote a post on finding work abroad, specific to her job at Invisible Children in Uganda. You can view the post on her blog here.
Part 1: Before You Leave
Be specific about what you want.
Finding a job abroad will be easier if you are more specific than “I want to work abroad after graduation.” Try to come up with an industry or job title as well as a local language, if not the exact city you want to work in. For example, my goal was “a job in the arts in Beijing.”
It’s all about networking, in a fun way.
Seek out students and professors at your university who are from where you want to work and get to know them. Many universities have a student group for international students, and sometimes they have groups for international students from specific regions or countries. Some universities and cities have a group that arranges language partnerships. At the University of Oregon, this is the Friendship Foundation for International Students. People will usually be flattered you want to work in their home country and want to help you as much as possible.
Your university might also have student groups specifically for Americans who want to work abroad and international students who want to work in the U.S. At the University of Oregon, I recommend the International Business and Economic Club.
Tell people what you want.
Make sure that as many people in the above groups plus mentors and professors who like you, especially in your major and language classes, know that you want to work abroad and what kind of jobs you want. Last year, I let my major’s department head, Pat Curtin, know I got an internship in Beijing. The internship ended up falling through, and I didn’t tell many people I got another job in Beijing. The day I graduated, I got an e-mail from a student who knew Pat letting me know a really good job lead in Beijing. This would have never happened had Pat not known I wanted to work there.
Make sure that as many people in the above groups plus mentors and professors who like you, especially in your major and language classes, know that you want to work abroad and what kind of jobs you want. Last year, I let my major’s department head, Pat Curtin, know I got an internship in Beijing. The internship ended up falling through, and I didn’t tell many people I got another job in Beijing. The day I graduated, I got an e-mail from a student who knew Pat letting me know a really good job lead in Beijing. This would have never happened had Pat not known I wanted to work there.
Certificates in Arts Administration = SO COOL
Dec 31st
I’ve been familiar with the pros and cons of certificates offered through universities for a while, as I’ve taken courses in the University of Oregon‘s Meeting & Event Management Workshop and Certificate Program. However, I didn’t know that many universities that offer master degrees in arts administration also offer professional certificates in arts administration.
Several universities offer certificate programs of this kind; I’d like to highlight New York University‘s and Boston University‘s:
Boston University makes it clear that they want both their master degrees and certificates in arts administration to be accessable to working professionals who aren’t extremely wealthy. Certificate graduates can use all their credits toward an eventual Master’s in Arts Administration if they like. I assume this means that masters and certificate students are often classmates. More information on the BU certificate here.
New York University‘s certificate doesn’t allow for credit transfers toward a master’s, likely because the classes are completely different for the two. However, NYU provides the option to use internship credit toward the certificate. NYU also offers certificates in Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Arts as well as Art Business. More information on the NYU arts administration certificate here.
Where Art and Public Relations Intersect
Dec 17th
One of the most beloved instructors in my major Kelli Matthews wrote a blog post titled “What if You Don’t Have a PR Degree?” designed to give people in this situation advice on how to enter the field. I’m in the opposite situation, majoring in public relations but not working in it afterward.
At the age of 18, I decided on public relations as the particular skillset that I could bring to the arts world. In my public relations classes, I learned how to write much better than most adult Americans, even college graduates. I learned how to put together a killer PowerPoint and present it. I learned how to work in groups from the planning to executing of projects. I learned how to cold email and call people. I learned how to research efficiently and comprehensively. I learned how to network. I didn’t learn all this because I was an exceptional student; these were simply graduation requirements for everyone in the public relations sequence.
Many recent graduates complain that their classwork in college has nothing to do with their current jobs. However, I use the skills mentioned above at work at H!TANG & China Creative Connections nearly every day. Additionally, my degree in journalism with an emphasis in public relations has gained me on-the-job respect for my writing and grammar in a field where employees come from a variety of educational backgrounds, at both my current position and at the art gallery.
Arts and administration classes at the University of Oregon can also supplement public relations coursework. This department offers a certificate in Meeting and Event Management and a class called Marketing the Arts. Marketing the Arts was one of my favorite courses of college, and I used coursework in Meeting and Event Management to help me plan the 2008 University of Oregon PRSSA Regional Activity.
It’s pretty easy, even in a small market, to find internships and student leadership positions where art and public relations intersect. For me, these were:
Marketing and Public Relations Intern at Hult Center for the Performing Arts
Marketing and Public Relations Intern at Seattle Theatre Group
Public Relations Intern at Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (DIVA)
Other UO PR students and grads who are combining arts and PR:
American expatriates in Beijing’s arts who did not major in PR but use it in their jobs:
Sarabeth Berman at LDTX
Kerry Holahan at International Festival Chorus
More Native Mandarin Speakers Than English, Spanish and Japanese Combined
Nov 8th
I’ve heard repeatedly from business gods that Mandarin Chinese is the language to know. Moving to Beijing immediately after graduation and witnessing the tremendous economic growth around me has driven the point home. For those of you who aren’t convinced, check this out: Mandarin has more native speakers in the world than English, Spanish, and Japanese combined.
By the way, Japanese and Spanish were the two other languages, along with Mandarin, that Richard Edelman recommended in the PRSSA National Conference 2006 keynote that audience members become proficient in. There’s also about 20 times as many students studying them than Mandarin at the University of Oregon. I know this because one of the biggest marketing mistakes of my life, which I made while I was U of O’s International Week and Night’s Publicity Committee Head, was to e-mail every language professor at the university targeted messages. U of O is a microcosmic example for the rest of the universities in the United States.
In addition to the sheer population numbers, native Mandarin speakers are part of the BRIC acronym that represents the world’s fastest developing economies: Brazil, Russia, India, and China.
Long story short:
Already huge and exponentially growing demand for Mandarin-speaking workers
+
Nobody studying it
=
Why I’m staying here until I’m fluent enough to run a business meeting
Thanks to Jaculynn Peterson for informing me via Twitter of the stats that inspired this post.
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