Feeling Nostalgic - PRSSA Style

In the fall of 2009 I was just a few short weeks away from my college graduation and about to attend my first PRSSA National Conference. I thought I had all of the answers and knew where life was going to take me. I wasn't exactly right, but I wasn't exactly wrong either.

I do not live with my parents. I do live in a city I didn't grow up in or go to school in. I do absolutely love my job. BUT I do live with my very kind sister and her husband, I did grow up visiting Phoenix and I'm not doing internal communications.

You see I along with two of the best people I could have ever hoped to work with were asked to give a presentation at the 2009 PRSSA National Conference in San Diego, California. We were asked to present on how to create a student run PR agency at the university level. It was flawless - our presentation could not have gone better - well maybe not exactly flawless... I did accidently create a graphic that said 'timsheet' instead of 'timesheet'... but it went off without a hitch.

I must say I kind of felt like a ROCKSTAR as the presentation came to a close. We took questions from the audience for about 10 minutes and they were still hungry for our knowledge. We had students, faculty advisors, and other conference attendees all coming up to us seeking our thoughts and opinions on matters that were important to them and their universities. There I was 22 years old and still in the midsts of my undergraduate education being asked for my expertise in starting a student run PR agency. It was an out of body experience that I will never forget. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work at a student agency while in school. It provided to be an extremely valuable experience and helped me land incredible internships and my current position.

The conference was so much more to me than this canned experience/ right of passage most others seem to have had. During my internship the previous summer I had the opportunity to first learn and then teach presentation skills seminars to other interns and professionals at the company. My skills learned in the classroom got me the internship where I l acquired the skills that helped me teach my classmates and allowed us to nail this presentation. It really solidified in my mind the need for both academic and professional experience prior to graduating.

I felt prepared. I felt confident. I felt ready to graduate when the time came because of BYU-Idaho professors that cared, i-Comm Student Media, PRSSA and my internships.
With anything in life though, it's important to remember to love life and have fun along the way. There is a time to be serious and there is a time tohave and be fun! One late night while working on our presentation we stumbledupon this YouTube Gem and every time I see it I feel a little nostalgic for PRSSA.