Congratulations to the newly elected 2012-2013 Eboard! We are so excited to have everyone on board and hit the next semester off with a bang. A big congratulations to the graduating board as well, and an electronic round of applause to them for making the past year a wonderful PRSSA experience. Looking forward to great times ahead!

And here is your new board:

Shira Palka, President 

Eva Huang, VP of Finance

shirapalka:

During this year’s Internet Week, I attended Likeable U Class of 2012: Beyond the Buzz, in which speakers such as Peter Shankman, Aliza Licht, Dan Kim and other respected professionals shared their expertise in the industry. Though I was only able to attend the second half of the event, I…

Want to stand out in the field of Public Relations? Apply to be a leader in PR by joining the PRSSA Executive Board!

The Executive Board position gives you the opportunity to network with other clubs on campus, PR organizations in NYC, develop leadership skills, and build your resume. 

Click here for the official PRSSA Eboard Application. More information about available positions could be found here. If you have any questions, feel free to email nyuprssa@gmail.com or tweet at us @NYUPRSSA! The deadline to apply is next Wednesday, April 25th.

Good luck!

We know that many of you unfortunately could not attend tonight’s meeting, so here are some highlights of our talk with Adrianna and Meg!

• Make sure you’re familiar with the latest social channels.Training programs are becoming more popular at agencies, and one day you may have to teach your boss how to use social media like Twitter or Pinterest.
• In such a stressful field, many people can easily burn out, but it is important to slow down and just breathe. At the end of the day, it’s up to you on how much you want to accomplish and this is an industry where you can really grow and shine.
• Some of the daily work tasks include planning and media relations; social media writing, a lot of media outreach, brainstorming and executing. And remember- “no idea is a bad idea in a brainstorm.” ~A
• “Intern as much as possible, no matter where it is.” ~M
• Experience is the only way you’ll truly learn about the industry, so try to intern, or even just learn about a company through informational interviews.
• An ideal intern from the NYC PR Girls’ perspective will: follow through and keep the flow of communication going at all times, be responsive, speak up, go the extra mile to complete a task, and mess up. That’s right, it’s important to make mistakes and you’re there to learn, so don’t be afraid to call out an error and learn from it afterwards.

The girls also discussed salaries, living in the city vs. commuting, making friends after college, and the perks of being in the industry.

Thanks for hanging out with our chapter, we hope you stop by again!

-Shira Palka
NYU PRSSA VP of Communications 

I’ll be the first to admit that it is pretty easy to pass off STUDY ABROAD as just BEING ABROAD. My experience thus far studying at NYU Prague has been that classes are more lax, professors are more lenient and schedules are generally more forgiving. That’s not to say that studying doesn’t occur… it just occurs less often. 

After “living the life” my first few weeks in Prague, I attended an NYU sponsored internship fair. NYU Prague has a great internship program, which has established relationships with many of the city’s biggest business and important firms. I know similar programs exist at other sites, and I recommend checking out the opportunities online before deciding on a site.

At the event I met Rachel, my current boss. Rachel is an ex-pat from America who has lived in Czech Republic for eight years. She has worked with several big name magazines, but in the past year has decided to open up her own Public Relations agency, Clout. Since she is growing her business, I have been lucky in that I am given a good amount of responsibility and am allowed to pursue my own initiatives. After working in a larger PR firm this past fall, it has been exciting to see how “traditional” PR works and I’ve loved being able to see our growth so far. The cultural exchanges that go along with doing PR in a different country, much less a Central European country, have been great to experience too.

If you plan to go abroad and are debating whether or not you want to intern, these are the main concerns I’d think about:

• Travel: If you plan to travel every weekend, it may be difficult to fit an internship into your schedule. Although bosses seem to be understanding, you want to make sure you devote enough time to your job.
• Free Time: Much of being abroad is about immersing yourself into the culture, daily life of the locals. If you rather be out exploring neighborhoods while you’re not in class, interning probably wont be worth it.
• Burning Out: Many use study abroad as break from interning. If you’ve had an internship the previous semester, and plan to have one when you return from abroad it may be nice to take a semester off while you can. 

Why I would recommend it:

• Balance: Daily life abroad is so much different than life in New York, that having an internship to schedule life around can help balance all of the crazy that is going on around you.
• Opportunities: The internships available abroad are usually well connected back to the states, expanding and enhancing your network for when you return to the city. 
• Immersion: Being able to do business with and interact with locals on a daily/weekly basis offers an immersion experience that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

-Gentry Brown