Amy Paul Presents:

One of the hardest parts about nearing graduation is thinking about what you're going to do after school is done. The real world is so much different than college; there's no extra credit, there's not always someone to tell you what to do, and all the rules for for what is expected of you change. Making the transition gracefully is not always easy. However, when Amy Paul spoke about her entrance into the professional world, she made it seem like it was something that anyone could do.

Amy graduated from UW-Whitewater in 2011. Originally a music major, she switched to Public Relations halfway through her time at the school, and worked extra time to make up for what she missed. She joined PRSSA, applied for and received multiple internships, and she began networking almost immediately. As she continued on with the program, she added more and more responsibility, accepting different offices within PRSSA and attending national conferences for PR students. She landed a job almost immediately after graduation, and began her journey within the realm of professional copywriting and PR.

Now, Amy works primarily as Interactive Account Coordinator for Ascedia, while maintaining a website for purchasing photos that she set up for an internship she held during her time at UWW for the Milwaukee Admirals. She talked us through her past internships and work experience, and had excellent tips for making yourself marketable in a field full of knowledgeable people. Some of her tips were:

1. Always dress the part. Professional is always best, but if the office is casual you may be to. But make sure you're never the most laid-back one there.
2. Search out responsibility. If you finish a task, ask for another. If you have time, seek out projects. The harder you work, the more invested you'll be seen as. 
3. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Most people would rather you ask and complete the task correctly the first time than skip the question and have to redo the project because of it.

One thing that I found very impressive about Amy was that she didn't wait for opportunity. She seized it, and if it seemed to be lacking, she created her own. I hope to take that approach myself, no matter where life takes me personally and professionally. 

To learn more about Amy Paul you can visit her Twitter, her LinkedIn or her Webs account. 

The PR Student

         My name is Jessie Pinkstaff! I am a senior at UW-Whitewater, and when I'm not doing things involved with school, I work at Starbucks as a shift manager and enjoy longboarding, reading, rollerblading, and spending time with my friends (of course. What a standard fact). I am enjoying my time within the PR-realm, and the things that I'm learning from the classes I'm taking.
         Public relations has shown itself to be a topic of study intertwined with my major. As you can tell from the title of my blog, I am a psychology major, but I am also a PR minor. I decided on PR as my minor initially because I wanted to learn more about how to relate to people and share messages with them. The farther I get into the class requirements for this minor, however, the more I see that psychology and PR are very closely related. For example, perception is a very important field in psychology. In PR-Tactics II we will be covering perception as well, with a bit of a different focus. However, both versions of perception are linked. Both PR and psych study Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as well, and focus on the needs of people as a way to best reach them.
        I am a psychology major because I want to help and understand people. I plan to continue on to graduate school for community counseling, and eventually specialize in children's counseling as well as OCD and anxiety disorder therapy. I can't wait to look into this class and the materials and relate them to psychology, and to learn more about the finesse behind public relations. It requires a specific touch to be successful in this area, and while it may not be the life-long answer for me, I love learning the inner workings of PR.