Practical PR
Students take skills learned in the classroom and apply them to the real world
For Allison Finder, the great joy of public relations is seeing how everything—sometimes miraculously—falls into place.
"It’s kind of like a miracle sometimes," says the UTSA senior. "You start with something way over your head, and then break it out into pieces. Then, somehow, all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place: the fliers, the releases, the phone calls, the volunteers. I love seeing how, slowly but surely, it all comes together."
It’s something Finder has a chance to see through her work as director of Unity PR, a student-run public relations firm that works with a variety of clients in the city.
Founded in 2006, Unity PR works like any other public relations firm, except for one big difference. Everyone on staff is a student. And, really, well … there isn’t a staff, come to think of it.
Instead, Unity PR is a volunteer group of enterprising students with the desire to learn more about public relations, the drive to help their community, and the initiative to seek real-world experience.
"We are a student-run public relations firm," Finder says. "We’re hungry. We’re ready for anything. We’re just wanting to take what we learn in the classroom and apply it in the PR working world."
The students, all members of the Public Relations Student Society of America Steven R. Levitt chapter at UTSA, are applying their creativity and enthusiasm to a variety of projects, including handling media relations and event coordination for several nonprofit clients in San Antonio. This past summer were two events supporting the San Antonio Food Bank: the May "Interfaith: Hunger Knows No Boundaries" event with area religious organizations, and the "Doing Good on the Green" golf tournament in June.
"This is crunch time," Finder says, laughing a little. "No summers off for us."
Unity PR got its start helping San Antonio’s Med Center Rotary Club throw the 2007 Nightingale Gala, which raised $47,000 for nursing scholarships. Then, in 2008, students helped build on the success of the Child Advocates San Antonio annual 5K run, attracting media attention and helping raise almost $25,000 for neglected or abused area children needing an advocate. That same year, students worked with the Battle of Flowers Association, which throws the annual Battle of Flowers parade during Fiesta San Antonio.
"Clients come to us," says Steven Levitt, chair of the UTSA Department of Communication and PRSSA adviser. "There are always organizations in town looking for help, and the students do good work. So far, the focus has been exclusively on nonprofit organizations. We want to help the community, and that’s where their work can have the biggest impact."
Even the company’s name reflects that spirit. Led by Kari Meuth, a 2009 graduate and past president of the organization, students chose the name Unity PR to represent "University, Community … Unity PR."
"We’re students at a university, and we wanted people to know that, and we’re also members of a community, and we wanted that to be clear, too," Meuth says.
That sense of community caring is clear, says Erica Benavides, community investments manager for the San Antonio Food Bank. "The fact that they’re choosing to work with nonprofit organizations and give back to the community is very admirable," Benavides says. "I can’t say enough about what they’ve done to help us, wanting to be there in the trenches with us, helping to do what we need to do. It’s been a great help to us."
Of course, there are benefits for students as well. "It’s taught me a lot, not just professionally but personally," Finder says. "Having to communicate with so many people, working with so many different groups … my organizational skills have increased dramatically. I’m better at writing, at communicating effectively, at delegating and at working with people."
"There are always organizations in town looking for help, and the students do good work. So far, the focus has been exclusively on nonprofit organizations. We want to help the community, and that’s where their work can have the biggest impact."
Steven Levitt
Levitt calls Unity PR a win-win situation. "The students benefit by gaining experience, making contacts and learning how PR works outside the classroom. Our clients benefit with good results," Levitt says, pointing out that Unity PR’s work helped to double the number of participants at the CASA 5K and exceed the desired fundraising amount for the Nightingale Gala by almost $20,000.
Levitt gets his own benefit, too, he says. "I’ve learned a lot from the students. I like the energy they have. The students are bright-eyed and ambitious and energetic. They’ve got this vision and all this good energy."
Gregory Frieden, a 2007 graduate who helped found the Unity PR firm, was a big part of the company’s vision. He wanted an outlet where he and other communications students could really take what they were learning in class and test it out.
"Part of being a public relations student is wanting to aspire to something better than just learning the theory," Frieden says. "You should learn the practice. And the best way to learn practice is a real live campaign, a real project where you dive in and do it."
Through Unity PR, students also learn that the perceived glitz and glamour of public relations—hobnobbing with celebrities at gala events or chitchatting at country club benefits—isn’t reality. Instead, Meuth says, the students found that PR involves a lot of behind-the-scenes grunt work: things like cold-calling sponsors, setting up tables at events and keeping registration forms in order.
"It’s fun, but it’s a lot of hard work," she says. "There’s a lot of planning and a lot of organization behind everything."
That’s a valuable lesson for public relations students, says Jeneen Garcia, director of education for the national PRSSA organization. There are no firm numbers of how many PRSSA chapters have their own agency, but Garcia estimates around 35 to 40 percent of the nation’s 303 chapters have a student-run firm like Unity PR.
"Public relations is more than just event planning or media relations. It’s strategic communications," she says. "Giving students the chance to be part of a firm and see it in action helps them make a decision about the career."
Frieden, who now sits on the board of the San Antonio chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, agrees.
"The opportunity I was given as a student [with Unity PR] definitely helped me be better prepared," he says. "Like a lot of students, I went to that first meeting because I wanted something on my résumé. But within minutes, I knew this was a place where I could really experience things and learn. I’m proud to have been part of it."