Deirdre Breakenridge

Ever since I interviewed Mikinize Stuart at the #swagghamptons event regarding the transition from student to PR professional, there’s been an overwhelming response to this video post.  It’s certainly an important topic and one that is extremely helpful to those students who will someday go through the same transition process.

Valerie Simon and I thought that it would be beneficial to expand upon this very subject for our next #PRStudChat discussion.  We want to help our student community to better prepare for their futures as young professionals.  The chat session will take place on September 15^th at 8:30 p.m. ET and it will focus on the move from PR student to PR pro; how to prepare for the transition and how to maximize resulting opportunities in the real world of PR.

We’ve gathered some of our recent #PRStudChat members in their first PR jobs or internships post graduation.  We’ll question them with respect to a number of areas relating to their experiences including: the easiest part of the transition, the most difficult part of moving from student to pro, how to manage work and supervisor expectations, what to do when deadlines are looming, how to handle errors on the job, how to learn and embrace the unknown roles and responsibilities (not discussed in class) that come along with young professional status, to name a few.

We are excited to announce our panel of special guests that include several young professionals forging ahead in the PR profession:

• Angela Hernandez: Driven PR pro at @FrancoPRGroup with a passion for writing and success
• Mikinzie Stuart: Account Coordinator for SHIFT Communications in NYC and freelance writer for GLES
• Han Ma: Social media addict and self proclaimed “Tech Geek” interning (post graduation) at Bite Communications
• Kion Sanders: Recently completed a post graduation internship at Weber Shandwick and is moving on to his next great PR opportunity
• Jessica Lawlor: Health care PR pro doing internal communication at a hospital in Philadelphia
• Samantha Ogborn: Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Fuor Digital in Chicago

As always, Valerie and I are very excited for another dynamic session with our panel of young professionals.  We know that our PR pros and educators in the community will also have a great deal of advice to contribute from their many industry experiences.  We encourage you to post your questions in the LinkedIn group, if there is a particular topic that you would like our young professional panel to address.

We hope you join us the night of the 15^th and look forward to chatting with you!