PR seniors hope for success in national competition
By Staff Writer | March 26____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A group of senior public relations majors were chosen to participate in the Public Relations Student Society of America Bateman Competition, which began in November and will conclude in May. Ned Hopf, Melissa Piccinich, Besi Henriquez and Lauren Cerra were all picked to be on a team to represent Seton Hall in the competition, which allows the students to use the skills they learned in the classroom to create a campaign for a national client, according to the PRSSA website. All the students felt it was a privilege to be chosen to be on the team. "This competition means the world to me," Piccinich said. "For public relations majors, this is a great honor to be chosen to participate." The competition this year is sponsored by AllyFinancial and the task is to increase financial literacy among low to moderate income communities, according to the website. The students agreed that PR classes they took throughout their years at Seton Hall had helped them to prepare. "I could not have been prepared for this competition without the knowledge my previous PR1, PR2, and Promotional Writing courses have taught me," Cerra said. "I reviewed past PR campaigns to also prepare." There was a large amount of work that goes into creating the actual campaign for the competition, according to Hopf. "A large portion of our time was devoted to researching the competition, our client, our demographics and various things of that nature," Hopf said. "Then we had to create objectives and a strategy for how to move forward. After the planning is complete we then have to put the plan in action and make sure it goes as smoothly as possible. Finally once the implementation is over we have to evaluate our campaign and reflect on its strengths and weaknesses." For part of their campaign, the group created different financial game shows to help students learn in an entertaining way, according to Henriquez. The students all have different expectations for the competition, but said they all want to create a great campaign. "My expectation for this competition is to create a good campaign that will promote the client's message: To make smart financial decisions," Henriquez said. "However, my biggest expectation is to make Dr. Rennie proud. If we can achieve that, than I know our campaign was a great success." Three teams will be chosen as finalists in May to present their campaigns and the winner will receive $2,500 and a trophy. Kelly Carroll can be reached at kelly.carroll@student.shu.edu.
