Only Time Will Tell

Photograph by:

Jacqui Latimer

Only Time Will Tell

Like everyone else reaching the end of their adventure as a college student, I wonder what comes my way as a new PR professional. Luckily, when I look back at what I’ve gained during my time at OU, especially Gaylord College, I gain a sense of comfort and confidence that I will be just fine.

Though I was pretty confident public relations would be the right degree for me, it is only natural that I sometimes questioned if I made the right choice. Thankfully, Gaylord and my professors put a stop to the questions and led me through the best three years of my life thus far. With client work in classes, study abroad and pressure to obtain an internship, I gained the knowledge and skills that will help propel me into a career as a PR professional.

Not only has Gaylord proven to me that PR is what I need to be doing, but it also helped me find my passion in PR. Having worked with several non-profit organizations now through classes and my internship, I have a newly discovered passion to work in the non-profit sector of PR, working mainly on human rights issues.

To help me prepare for such a career, I plan on attending grad school at the University of Denver for an MBA in international relations. After completing my master’s, I hope to serve 27 months in the Peace Corps and return to begin international relations work worldwide.

While this goal is just that, a goal, I believe Gaylord has equipped me with the right tools to accomplish this goal and to become a well-established PR practitioner in the near future.

Yes, the future is scary. Yes, it is unknown. We can hope for the best and work our tails off to get where we want to be, but the truth of the matter is: only time will tell.

ANGEL LOVE

By: Alison Lambert

Today, I was surfing the blogosphere and checking out current trends for an interesting topic to write on. As I was perusing the many fashion sites I have saved under my top favorites, I thought about fashion PR and its emerging trends and landed upon my topic. Alltop is a website where you can go to find the most current PR blogs on any topics. From Alltop, I went into a fashion site called PR Couture. It has information from fashion PR and online trends to finding the right fashion agency for you.
The one guest article that caught my eye was Show Me The Pretty, which highlights the indie fashion PR component to top fashion PR. Each PR Couture blog features an interview with a successful indie fashion artist. The industry expert provides advice and feedback about their own fashion PR strategy. This week featured an interview with Angel D’Amico. Angel is a freelance artist designer and illustrator from Chicago who has a unique sense of style and a wide range of skills. She is talented in just about anything including: drawing, painting, digital art, graphic design, playing and composing music, and hand screen printing onto shirts, bags, and scarves. She also created her own magazine, Entire Truestar Magazine, an urban magazine dedicated to keeping teenagers off the streets with an after school program that gives them real life experience in working for a magazine. She has an online store as well called ADLOVE for fans to buy her apparels and designs. Some of the artist’s clients include: Burger King, Timberland, YRB magazine, PEEL magazine, Los Angeles Journal, Lollapalooza, and Dance for Peace. D’Amico’s background is in design and illustration, but she ventured into apparel because she loves learning and experimenting with new techniques. The designer also mentioned in the interview that fashion has always been a love of hers. When asked what inspires her to create, D’Amico said, “Every day life. It is something inside of me that I can’t get away from, If I don’t create something for a few days, I feel like I am missing something.” To stay connected with Angel, follow her on her blog and see what inspires her daily.

No More Questioning

No More Questioning by Katie Whittern

As I look back on my four years here at the University of Oklahoma, I sometimes wonder what my life would be like had I taken a different route. What if I decided to go to Oklahoma State University and major in Fashion Merchandising like I had originally planned? What if I had stayed a business major here at OU? What if I had decided against taking my internship at AT&T this past summer in Dallas?

I could sit for days and wonder how different my life would be had I chosen a different path. But to be completely honest with you...I'm glad I chose the path I did.

I'm glad I chose OU over OSU... all of my best friends and now roommates are from OU.

I'm glad I strayed away from the business college... honestly I probably would have failed out of all my classes and switched to public relations anyway.

I'm glad I put on my big girl panties and interned AWAY from home this summer... I grew up a lot, learned so much and met a lot of awesome people.

There are probably hundreds of decisions I have made over the years I could question. But, I don't. Why waste your time? As cliche as it might be, I believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe you make the choices you make for a reason. I believe everyone is right where they are supposed to be. Pardon the motivational speaker moment I just had by the way.

So, as I look back on my last four years of college, I am happy with the decisions I made. They led me to this exact apartment with these exact friends on this exact computer writing for this exact class for this exact major at this exact school... and I would not have it any other way.

As I bring this sappy post to a close, I have a few words of wisdom... if you want to call it that.

1. Be happy with where you are in life and if you are not, do something about it. 2. Always try new things to add some spice to your life. Don't let your life get repetitive and boring. 3. Don't waste your time questioning your past decisions. They are made. Move on and make the best out of where you are right now.

Bring on the sports and the people!

by Scott Sauer

Public Relations.

What an interesting choice of major. It's such a vague term and can lead to very frustrating thought processes when contemplating life after OU. My internship with an event planning firm and a PR firm, inferno, quickly slammed the door with my passion for either of those routes. So now I am left with the "creating mutually beneficial relationships" road of PR.

Yeah OK.

This is my ultimate dream job, and my PR degree is gonna have to work.

I wanna throw t-shirts at sports games ... OK maybe not that simple, but I aspire to do promotional work for a sports team. And if that means I need to start out throwing t-shirts and running promotional events during halftime of a Memphis Grizzlies game, then so be it!

My love for sports has been growing since my Dad and I used to watch Cincinnati Bengal football games in our kitchen in Ohio when I was only 3 or 4. Dad and I loved the Bengals, and watching those games with him will be one of favorite memories I will always share with him.

That's who I want to impact. So much of PR at OU has been put in to research and campaigns, writing and publication. To me this is skewing our view of PR.

As PR people, we should thrive to understand people and how they interact with each other. We should thrive to impact the lives of everyone we work with in a positive way. It is important to keep this in mind as we begin to search for jobs.

I have come to terms with the idea that many of us are gonna be starting at the VERY bottom wherever we work. PR is going to be a tough field to find work in, but if we remember the reason we chose our major, the passion behind the degree, I think we will be all right.

We are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to earn our degree from the University of Oklahoma. Now it's time to take our spin on what we've learned and impact people in ways we would have never imagined were possible. Even if that means making them stand and scream ... all for an oversized t-shirt.

Never Forgotten

Never Forgotten

By: Shayla Boone

Kari Watkins is the executive Director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a museum/memorial that was created to honor those who were affected by the act of violence that was committed on April 19,1995, by Timothy McVeigh. For those that do not remember or may not have heard of this event, Timothy McVeigh created a bomb and targeted the Alfred P. Murrah federal building. As a result of his act of violence there were hundreds of Oklahomans that were killed, injured, and affected by this act of terrorism.

The Mission Statement of the memorial is "We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity."

It is Kari Watkins job to make sure that this mission statement and message is upheld as well as delivered everyday.

Watkins received her degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma. While obtaining her degree she worked with news station KFOR to gain hands on experience and knowledge in the field. Upon graduating from the University of Oklahoma she continued to work at KFOR in their news production department.

From there she decide to go into corporate public relations by joining the ranks of the Sonic Corporation. She worked for Sonic during the years of 1989-1994. She decided after working in corporate PR for awhile that she wanted to take a break and focus on getting her MBA at Oklahoma City University.

Watkins began her career at the Oklahoma City National Memorial in 1996. She stated that a friend of hers told her about big things that were happened regarding the creation of the memorial. Even though Watkins had taken a break from the corporate world of work to focus on her MBA she couldn’t resist seeing what the big things were!; She has worked there ever since.

Watkins states ‘In my life as a PR professional no two days are alike. The most difficult part of my job is sometimes seeing the big picture; making sure that all rocks have been looked under and the unexpected assessed in every situation.’

Watkins stated in the PR world that media relations are key to holding successful events and also spreading an organizations message. Also she stated that to be successful making a personal connection can make all the difference. ‘In today’s time younger generations are used to just sending emails to contact people. The problem with that is in this business and the world there are generational gaps, so there are people that don’t use their computer for social communication and a phone call is more effective. Also it just adds a personal touch to the person that you are trying to reach to show them you want them to attend an event and you thought specifically about them.’

The advice that Watkins gives for someone wanting to pursue a career in Public Relations is that ‘There are no 40 hour work weeks! When people need you, you have to respond.’

· Oklahoma City National Memorial website referenced for memorial facts.

www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org

Nalgene's Tides of Change

Nalgene's Tides of Change

By Jeff Siddons

Up until a few years ago, Nalgene, a U.S. plastics manufacturer popular for making reusable drinking containers, manufactured the majority of their products with Bisphenol A (BPA) laden polycarbonate.

However, recently, speculation regarding the potential health risks of BPA and human contact has come to light. In 2008, the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study created by Iain Lang and his colleagues. After conducting a cross-sectional study of approximately 1,500 humans, Lang concluded that elevated BPA levels
were associated with heart disease, diabetes and an uncommon escalation of liver enzymes.

The aforementioned research, coupled with a handful of BPA-related health studies, posed a serious threat to the present image and future existence of Nalgene as a company.

As the message spread, large retailers began pulling BPA based Nalgene products from their shelves. At first, only a few small stores removed bottles, but after camping supply giant REI went BPA-free, Nalgene found itself standing on the edge of a cliff.

As a reaction, Nalgene halted the production of BPA bottles and began using BPA-free copolyester. To avoid a PR image disaster, the public affairs people at Nalgene created the "Nalgene Choice" information center on their website. By addressing BPA concerns, explaining the phase-out of old bottles and introducing the BPA-free "Everyday" bottle, Nalgene aimed to minimize the consumer backlash and retain customers.

To this day, Nalgene is a fully functioning manufacturer operating out of Rochester, NY. If those in charge had blinked and not reacted forthwith, they would have found themselves drowning in consumer disapproval.

All Sports. All the Time.

By: Kati O'Kelley

When I first arrived in college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew I liked working with people and planning events. I also loved to write and had a strong background in journalism. After trying many different majors, I finally decided on public relations and haven't looked back since. One of the first things I was told about being a public relations major was the importance of internships. After working a small internship at the Harn Homestead Museum in Oklahoma City, I applied and got my current internship at Oklahoma City All Sports.

In my year with Oklahoma City All Sports, I have learned and grown as a public relations student. On my first night with All Sports, I worked the All College Basketball Classic and fell in love with sports PR. Working with the media and seeing behind the scenes of a sporting event was exciting and even though I am no sports expert, I was having a blast. Since then, I have worked numerous event with All Sports ranging from the Women's College World Series to the Big 12 Basketball Tournament.

It is not only the events that I love about sports PR, it is the work that goes into the events that is the most exciting. All Sports has shown me that these things are not put together over night, but it takes months and months of hard work to put on a successful even of any kind. Be that a Board Dinner or a Baseball Tournament. I have also learned that working together makes for a better product.

With the combination of my education and my real world experience, I feel confident moving forward into the world of working professionals. I am currently working two internships; the first at All Sports and the other at The Brides of Oklahoma Magazine. My advice to other public relations majors would be to get as much experience outside of school as possible. Through all of my outside experiences, I have learned not only about public relations but about myself. I have learned that, yes, it can be scary out there but if I work hard, I can do anything I put my mind to!

Photo: Lauren Burkholder, Natalie Beasley