So you’ve recently joined PRSSA. You know that it is one of the largest Public Relations organizations in the nation and that our chapter has a lot of committees to get involved in. But what else does your PRSSA membership involve, and how can you use it to advance your career?
- Broaden Your Network
Networking- our favorite word in the public relations community. PRSSA itself has over 10,000 members, and it’s parent organization, PRSA is comprised of over 30,000 members. With one of the largest
- National Conference
- National Assembly
- Leadership Rally
- Regional Conferences
Also, every PRSSA chapter has a PRSA sponsor chapter, where students can meet professionals that offer career mentoring. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is sponsored by the Central Illinois Chapter- and in return we offer them reverse mentoring and fresh new ideas!
- Funding Your Education
PRSSA gives out over $30,000 scholarships each year to students who demonstrate outstanding merit in public relations. So you can actually use PRSSA to help fund your education. The next wave of scholarship applications is due April 30th! You can find a list of them here. There is also a major opportunity for students to get experience and win awards for developing national campaigns each year.
- Learning More About the Industry
As a PRSSA member, you will have access to three very important public relations publications. Want to impress during an interview? Find time each week to check out these publications. Or you can check out some of UIUC PRSSA’s Favorite Industry Websites on this blog post.
- Gain Valuable Leadership Experience
Our Illinois chapter is still quite young, making it easy to implement new ideas and opportunities for our members. We have 8 executive board members, and there are also ways to gain leadership within each smaller committee. Here is the list of exec. board positions so you can begin thinking about which you might want to run for in future years.
- PRSA Webinars
This is an awesome tool that many PRSSA members might not know about (except our VP of Digital, Amber Welch, who is always tweeting along with the webinars because she’s on top of her game). Each webinar is meant to teach you valuable skills or tools to use in the industry, and there a few meant for soon-to-be graduates about the enter the field. Some are free, others can be purchased. You can view a list of dates here and schedule them into your calendar.
- Broaden Your Network
As a student, you can use PRSSA to your advantage by looking at is as a way to learn PR skills from your peers and industry influencers. A great way to hear what they have to say is by using the #PRSSA on social media. What are the latest things other chapters are participating in? It also might be a great way to find jobs and internships.
- Launch Your Career
Speaking of jobs and internships, employers are going to be looking for PRSSA on your resume, so by being a member, you are already putting yourself in a position to get hired. That’s because they know you are taking that extra step to put yourself out there and learn. There is also a special PRSA JobCenter and PRSSA Internship Center where you can search for employment opportunities from all over the world.
- Make Friends With Some Pretty Awesome People
Not going to lie, there is nothing better than nerding out with a couple of your PR pals at the PRSSA meetings and social events. It’s also a great way to make some friends that you will see around campus and in your classes. With an executive position dedicated solely to creating fun events, you are guaranteed to make some friends that will last past college, and maybe even future people to networking within your career. We keep our website calendar updated and you can also view about future social events on our Facebook/Instagram feed.
This is all just scraping the surface. Find out more about the opportunities for the largest student PR organization in the country here. Or you can reach out to any of the exec. board members with any questions you have about your membership. Comment a ‘thumbs-up’ emoji on this post on Facebook if you agree that PRSSA has some pretty awesome benefits!
