November 2012 Issue

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What’s Inside?

National Conference...2

Homecoming PR...3

PRSSA Exec Board Spotlight...4

Pinterest v. Gentlemint...5

Professor Spotlight...5

Alumni Spotlight...6

THON...7

Acknowledgements...8

Contact Information:

Website:http://pennstateprssa.wee-bly.com/

#CommComm Blog:http://psuprssa.wordpress.com/

Twitter:: @PennStatePRSSA

Facebook: The Penn State Chapter of PRSSA

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A Look Inside the 2012 PRSSA National Conferenceby Annie Lohmeyer

Earlier this semester, Penn State’s PRSSA executive board set out for San Francisco to attend the2012 PRSSA National Conference. This year’s conference, “Bridging The Gap,” was held fromOctober 12-16 and o!ered countless ways for students to connect with professional experts in thepublic relations industry. I sat down with Rachel Gluck, director of membership, to get an inside look atthe National Conference.

What did you do each day at the National Conference?Each day we had a keynote speaker in the morning and breakout sessions throughout the day wherewe got to choose which speakers we wanted to hear from. So that was really cool that we got tochoose. We also had the opportunity to go sightseeing, which was a lot of fun.

Who was your favorite speaker of the weekend?We had the co-founder of Twitter, Biz Stone, speak, and he was awesome. He told us all about how hestarted Twitter and life stories about how he built his way up. One thing he said that really stood outto me was, “to succeed spectacularly, you must fail spectacularly.” From this I learned that to achievegreatness in life you have to learn from your mistakes in order to improve. It was a very motivationalspeech.

Were there any opportunities to network with other professionals?There was a career-fair at the end of the conference and companies such as Edelman and Fleishman-Hillard were among those there. It was great that we could go around and speak to PR professionalsand give them our business cards and resumes—you could meet a lot of professionals this way. Also,many of the speakers would leave time after their presentation to allow students to approach themindividually, which was also a great way to network.

What was the biggest thing you took away from the conference?I really thought the weekend was a great motivation to pursue PR. Before I went I wasn’t really sureabout what I could do within the public relations industry, but hearing all these di!erent speakers andperspectives on all the many di!erent industries helped me realize how great PR is. I learned that thereare so many di!erent paths you can take within PR and that is such a great motivator for me to moveforward with.

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Homecoming Public Relationsby Rachelle Gaynor

The excitement of Homecoming at Penn State University is always tangible to those in the community.This is largely due to the public relations e!orts put forth by the Homecoming committee.

Robert Walter, a junior at Penn State, was the PR Director for Homecoming last year, and was recentlynamed Executive Director. He served as the main contact to the media for Penn State Homecoming PR. But what exactly does Homecoming PR entail?

“PR for homecoming entails designing ads, printing and distributing promotional material, writingpress releases and media advisories, managing social media, taking pictures at all events, and maintaining and promoting a consistent image for homecoming,” said Walter.

These are all tasks commonly associated with public relations in the professional world, so it serves asgreat experience for students interested in pursuing a career in PR. It also allows a unique experience forstudents by allowing them to be directly involved with the PR of their university. If you are interested in that experience, it is easy to get involved.

“The best way to get involved with Homecoming PR, or Homecoming in general, is to apply to be aHomecoming Captain in January,” said Walter. “No experience with Homecoming is necessary toapply.”

The main goals that the Homecoming committee tried to achieve this past year in regards to publicrelations were to get the word out more about Homecoming events, and to increase overallparticipation among the Penn State Community. “Our mission is to instill pride and celebrate traditionin all members of the Penn State community,” said Walter. Even after all their success, the Homecoming committees are still looking for new ways to improve their e!orts.

“A goal that I have for PR in the future is to continue in trying to attract new people to attend our events, including Penn State faculty and the State College community,” said Walter.

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Exec Board Spotlight: Paige Twillmannby Kayla Sredni

This month’s spotlight is on Executive Board Member Paige Twillmann. Twillmann is from BaskingRidge, New Jersey and currently in her senior year at Penn State, majoring in Public Relations withminors in Business and International Studies.

Twillmann has a long history with Penn State PRSSA. Twillmann said she "rst joined because she“thought it would be a good way to learn more about the industry and meet other peers andprofessionals in PR.” First, she joined PRSSA as a freshman on the Event Planning committee. As asophomore, she was a Co-Chair on the Fundraising committee, which happened to be thecommittee’s "rst year. She spent her junior year as Director of Internal Communication, whichinvolved her sending out the weekly wrap-ups. She has now reached her "nal year in PRSSA and sheis currently Lead Director of Regional Conference.

Twillmann’s current position comes with a lot of responsibility, some of which include overseeing thebid submission and the execution of Regional Conference as a whole. Nationally, PRSSA isdivided into 10 di!erent geographic regions and every year there is one conference held in each ofthe regions. In order to have the conference in your region, schools submit their bids in thebeginning of September to host the conference, and much to Twillmann’s excitement Penn State’sbid was selected to host in the spring.

Twillmann plans the regional conference with a small team of 3 other Co-Directors that workalongside her. Now that Penn State PRSSA’s bid was chosen, Twillmann and her Co-Directors will startplanning the conference and reaching out to schools in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey toencourage them to attend this year’s Regional Conference.

Twillmann’s favorite part of Regional Conference is that she gets to see it start to "nish. It is a longprocess that starts in May with the development of the bid and ends in February when theconference is held, and Twillmann cannot wait to see the end result.

In addition, she loves the experience this has given her in learning more about event planning sinceshe is in charge of overseeing the entirety of the event. Being the Lead Director of RegionalConference is also a fun position, Twillmann claims, because she is constantly in contact with PRSSAmembers from many other states, which has provided her with useful networking opportunities.

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Pinterest vs. Gentlemint?by Brittany Davidson

If you visit Gentlemint ’s homepage you will "ndthe slogan “Gentlemint is a place to "nd andshare manly things”. What is Gentlemint?Gentlemint considers itself as a “manly ” version ofthe virtual pinboard “Pinterest”. What makes thissite so “manly” is: the icon (in the upper left handcorner of the page) of an animated man closelyresembling the game Monopoly ’s iconic symboland the manliest symbol of all, a mustache.

“Pinterest” has received a large amount of malecriticism that the website is primarily geared towards women sharing ideas about theirweddings and look ing at fashion andhome-recipes for hours. From what I haveinferred from the male criticism is that thewebsite seems too “domestic” for some men.Upset with this “female-oriented” website,Gentlemint was created with the intent to begeared more towards males to allow men to talkabout more masculine things such as diving withGreat White Sharks, the new Iron Man 3, or (mypersonal favorite) “How to Drink Co!ee Like aMan”.

Is there a main di!erence between the twowebsites? Gentlemint has completely mimickedPinterest but it has re-labeled all of pinterest’slingo as more “manly” terminology. For example,on Pinterest, a user can “repin” cer tain web linksthat they can save to one of their labeled boards(where they can save the web links).Gentlemint has relabeled “pinning” as “tacking”…My assumption is “pinning” was too feminine ofa word. These simple, and unnecessary, changesin wording are the main di!erence between thetwo sites.

If you want to join a virtual pinboard that has atopic for everyone, I recommend Pinterest. If youwant to join a virtual pinboard that more of aselective genre of categories (beer, women,movies) then I would chose Gentlemint.

Professor Spotlight:Steve ManuelBy Andrew Patterson

Penn State Public Relations professor SteveManuel has a multitude of experience workingin PR; however, he got into the profession byaccident.

In the early 1970s, Manuel was a 19 year oldMarine Sergeant stationed outside Philadelphia.It was Christmas season, and his unit wasresponsible for distributing toys to an incoming#ight of Vietnamese orphans from the VietnamWar. Manuel was then asked by a superior totake photographs and write some captions ofthe event. Much to his surprise, his submittedphotos ended up being a full page newspaperstory a week later.

"My "rst PR stunt was by accident, just dumbluck," laughed Manuel. "I never even thoughtabout it until it happened. And I said this is socool that, once I have the chance, I'm going toapply for transfer into the Public A!airs "eld."Manuel continued to work for Public A!airs inthe military, and eventually worked as aspokesperson at the Defense Department,between 1992-1996, before retiring and comingto teach at Penn State.

"The Defense Department was a verychallenging, high-stressed job, like anything elsein Washington, but it was a very interesting fouryears," Manuel said. "You get up before sunrise;you don't go home till it's dark. ... Saturday youare recovering and too tired to do anything. AndSunday you're thinking about Monday. So it wasa long four years. I needed a break after thosefour years."

For students entering into PR, he advises them towork at di!erent types of internships, so they can get a feel for both a PR "rm and the government.

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Alumni Spotlight: Liz Ferrariby Julianne Tarullo

Liz Ferrari, from Houston, Texas, is a 22-year-old sales coordinator for NCC Media, which sells spot cableadvertisement, currently located in New York City. She graduated from Penn State in May 2012 with adouble major in Advertising/Public Relations and Spanish, with a minor in Economics.

While at Penn State, Liz was involved with PRSSA, serving on the Event Planning Committee hersophomore year, and was elected Director of Finance her junior year. As Director of Finance, her dutiesincluded allocating funds to various projects and events throughout the year, budgeting the chapter’saccount, handling dues, and working with UPAC to "nance trips to national conferences, assemblies and regional activities. Elected Vice President her senior year, Liz collaborated with the executive board and committee chairs, oversaw the entire chapter, and communicated with additional chapters throughout the US. She shared the PRSSA monthly newsletter with other Big Ten chapter Vice Presidents, creating a network of collegiate connections.

Now at NCC Media, Liz works directly with two account executives and maintains accounts by workingwith buyers and cable a$liates, who control the network space for di!erent geographic areas. Her goal is to insure that the advertisements that the buyers purchase are run correctly and achieve maximum ratings. NCC acts as a representative for advertisers who want to buy cable advertisement space, maintaining a relationship with a$liates across the country.

Even though Liz is not working directly in PR, she feels that she is still using PR skills and emphasizes theimportance of knowing your audience, no matter what the task. She knows the importance of doing the research and discovering why an idea will work and positively impact an audience. What she "nds to be the most important skill in her "eld of work is the ability to listen and understand. “This can be translated to any job. Understanding the problems your future company faces and then being able to present a solution is very valuable, and they will notice you aren’t just going through the motions ofyour job, but truly understand the company and your work.”

Liz states that her involvement with PRSSA has given her hands on experience and leadershipopportunities with various projects, which will help with any career. However, the opportunity thatPRSSA provided to practice building relationships with, “members, speakers, the university, and theState College community each year” was the most valuable aspect of the organization to her currentcareer. Liz has kept in contact with many of the PRSSA alumni and others who she had met atconferences. The connections she made during her college years have now helped her to get involvedwith other activities in New York. She serves on the Communications Committee for the Hope Gala, analumni ball in New York that raises money for Penn State’s THON and the Four Diamonds Foundation.

Speaking to current PRSSA members, Liz advises becoming heavily involved in a few organizations,rather than joining a number of various clubs with little dedication. “When it comes time for interviewsyou need to be able to talk about something rather than just list what clubs you were in.” Lastly, sherecommends enjoying the time students have in State College. She worked very hard and accom-plished much during her time at Penn State, but she states, “I also made a ton of great memories.”

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A THON Chair’s Thoughts on CanningCaroline Nelson

I have been a canner since freshman year; I have been on eight canning weekends so far. I have neverhad a canning weekend where I did not have an absolute blast. To be perfectly honest when I was afreshman if someone said, “Would you like to join?” I was usually the "rst one to say yes withouthesitation. Sometimes that was a good thing and sometimes that was a bad thing.

Canning and THON has de"nitely been a positive thing from my excessive need to try out everythingI see in college. Canning has so many positive things packed into one amazing weekend it ba%esme why someone would not want to can. You get closer with people in your organization or on yourcommittee, home cooked meals, the satisfaction of doing something good, and did I mention homecooked meals?

Ok maybe canning isn’t all smiles; there have been times when I was freezing my tail o!. Canningweekends also do not have the typical weekend of luxury of sleeping till the afternoon; a typicalcanning wake-up time is 6a.m. Also sometimes you have to sleep in an uncomfortable place whereyou never get any sleep. I have to admit we have all been there.

Having said ALL of that the pluses far outweigh the inconveniences. I have never had a canningweekend where I did not smile the entire time, laugh until it hurt, and had an overall good feeling. It is an experience unlike any other; everyone is there for the same reason so everyone gets along.

The families I stay with have always been amazing hosts. The parents go out of their way to make their houses feel like a 5-star-resort. I wake up to a bu!et in the morning and am always stu!ed at the end of the day where I go to bed happy and full. Usually they bring out the air mattress, or occasionally I have been privileged enough to have a bed. Sometimes yes, I have had to sleep on the #oor, but I am usually so tired I do not care.

So yes, canning is not a glamorous activity! However, it is a very rewarding activity that everyone whoattends Penn State should try out at least once in their time as a Nittany Lion.

Acknowledgments:Featured Writers:Annie Lohmeyer

Rachelle Gaynor

Kayla Sredni

Brittany Davidson

Andrew Patterson

Julianne Tarullo

Caroline Nelson

Editors in Chief:

Ed Wons Sarah Kurz

A note from the editors:

We are excited to see the Communications Committee growing over the past month. We are thankful for all ourdedicated Committee members and we are looking forward to a productiveremainder of the semester!

Cheers,

Edewons5@gmail.com

Sarahkurzs92@gmail.com