Loughlin/Michaels Group Founder Kicks Off PRSSA Event

The Public Relations Student Society of America, SJSU chapter, hosted their two-day Regional Activity, “The Survivor’s Guide to Public Relations”, the weekend of March 19th - 20th at San Jose State University.The PRSSA Executive Board garnered over 80 students (including students from CSU Sacramento and University of Nevada) and many PR professionals to speak to, interact and make connections with the students.Day one started off well with a keynote speech by our very own president and founder, Donna Michaels. Her presentation was titled, “Turning Internships into Careers.” This was vital to hear from a professional to students wondering about the real world and Donna also provided a Q&A session that allowed the students to inquire further about internships and other important questions.After the keynote speech, the students split up into three groups and each then went on agency tours to local PR agencies in the Silicon Valley. At each of these tours, the students were able to connect and gain/earn relations with the professionals they met.All the students arrived back at SJSU after the agency tours (and some much needed grub) to listen to multiple panel discussions about different aspects and/or growing interests of public relations. The panels included: “Crafting Your Interactive Resume,” “Brand New to PR” and “Environmental Scanning.” Everyone participating in the Regional Activity was treated to dinner and a networking social at San Jose City Hall.The next day, Gerard “Gerry” F. Corbett, the CEO of Redphlag LLC, a strategic marketing and management consulting firm, gave a keynote speech during brunch for the students.After brunch ended, the students broke into teams of four to six people and took part in a money-earning case study competition in which Gerard Corbett, Dennis L. Wilcox and Matt Cabot were the judges (each PR professionals).Finally, the Regional Activity was ended with a wine tour for those students who paid the extra $10 to attend at Wente Vineyards in Livermore. The Regional Activity was a huge success this year and we’d like to give a shout out to our intern, Nick Dovedot, who was one of the SJ State PRSSA members putting on the event. Good work!