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

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

AOL recently announced their lay-off of thousands of part-time writers that produce content for the Huffington Post. Instead of using the free-lancers, AOL decided to stick with full-time contributors based out of larger, metropolitan areas like New York and Los Angeles.

The move spurred violent emotions across the board from the Newspaper Guildconsisting of thousands of writers who encouraged writers still on-board to strike, due to unfair compensation. The Guild is claiming the strike legitimate because the Huffington Post Media Group, from which the writers were fired, is AOL funded– and therefore has the money to pay all contributors.

As students of media, it is an important key to realize that all HuffPost free-lancers were contributing content based on their own time, and more importantly their own interest. Because of the sheer number of contributors, the HuffPost cut their losses by still giving writers the option to contribute, but on their own dime.

Writers and freelancers can contribute whatever content they want, which means that they usually serve their own agenda. It is within the benefit of the writer, to be published in tandem with the Huffington Post because of their crazy readership numbers and audience base.

Although the move may seem sour for some writers, I think it is a good example to follow and opportunity to follow up on as PR and media students. To get your name out there, to get your company or agenda noticed, sources like the Huffington Post and others can be invaluable to your resume and experience in reaching an intrigued audience.

You may not be paid, but the experience can serve to pay off more than a lousy check for a one-time article. The move by AOL is evident in all new social media– most content is user-generated. YouTube only works because YOU post your videos. Twitter works because you share your daily musings and interests.

In the ever-evolving world of social media, journalism and PR, the most important aspect is to get yourself out there in the best way possible, and that it is still worth it, even for free.

By Gentry Brown

Originally posted on 4/05/2011 via Wordpress