Hello, students. My name is ______ and I am a public relations professor at U-N-T. It is a great honor to be here today. Because like many of you, I was quite anxious about my future during high school. I was unsure of where I would end up. I knew I wanted to make my parents proud, but beyond that I was lost. (PAUSE) In theory, I wanted a good work-life balance and a new experience every day. Most importantly, I wanted to hear about other people’s stories.

As I reflected on my daily life, I realized I had the beginnings of what I wanted, but not enough to have a career plan. I had to ask myself when was I happiest? (PAUSE) When did I feel accomplished? (PAUSE) What did I not want to do? (PAUSE) I think many of us can agree that we want to steer clear of math. (PAUSE, SMILE WHILE SCANNING THE CROWD)

Some of us may think we are lost, but we find the most unexpecting surprises waiting when you become curious about yourself. I discovered this to be true after my reflections led me to my current career path, public relations. For those who do not know what public relations , or P-R, involves, it is a field that uses communication to build good relationships between organizations and groups of people.

Let’s talk about how you can connect P-R to your world right now as a high school student.

Let’s say that you are working hard to save money for college while balancing extracurriculars and school. You decide to take a break from saving all your money and buy a new graduation dress. However, your order is cancelled days later with no explanation or refund. (SOFTLY SHAKE HEAD) Obviously, you’re disappointed, and your connection to the business is damaged. So, you explain your frustrations in a recorded video and post it. As your video begins to go viral, you see a comment from the company on social media. This is where public relations fits into this story. A P-R professional for that same brand completed a media grab of online stories involving themselves and began strategizing a plan to mend the situation.

While situations vary, this can be a typical day for a P-R pro. We keep up with media and news regarding things that can impact our companies, write press releases, plan events and manage social media. These tasks are a small part of what we can do. If you like writing, solving problems and working with people, P-R may be for you. At U-N-T, our P-R students are receiving an education that allows them to have flexibility within the field. This includes a combination of classes involving advertising, broadcasting and print journalism.

Our students work with real-life companies and nonprofits to practice the skills they learn in their classrooms. That’s right: you won't be reading a boring textbook for hours every day. Your professors have real world P-R experience and share those career lessons with students like you. You just have to show up willing to learn.

Ethics is a huge part of the P-R program. We focus on doing the right thing for organizations, groups of people and ourselves. Our professional code requires us to honor the values of advocacy, honesty, independence, loyalty and fairness. These values have been my lifeline throughout my professional career.

While these may seem obvious, it is important to have guidelines within your career. There's a big myth that P-R people try to cover up bad situations. That's not true. We work to protect the reputation of our employers, but we also work to do right by the groups of people involved with our organizations. This can be employees, customers, government officials, competitors and more. (PAUSE) While we aim to protect the reputation of our organizations, we also advocate for the people we market to. I’m sure y’all have dealt with people misunderstanding you at some point.

As public relation professionals, we understand that there is not just one side to a story. There are both parties’ stories and the truth. We recognize that nuance and help bridge that understanding of all sides to our audiences as well. We believe that consumer loyalty is correlated with our relationships with consumers.

To: Thorne Anderson, Dorothy Bland, John Clendening, Hoda Emam, Kim Keller, Caleb Reed

From: Alyssa Richey

Date: Thursday, May 8

Subject: The Mayborn School of Journalism professors will be going to Denton High School

The event will be held in the school auditorium and will last from 10 – 11:30 a.m. The event will be on Friday, May 9. We are expecting about 175 students in attendance at this presentation. Each professor will speak about their specialties in hopes of recruiting them to the program. After everyone speaks, we will take a short break and then break for small group Q&A sessions.

Here is some demographic information on the students we will speak with. Denton High School is predominantly Hispanic at 40.9%, 37.5% are white and 14.5% African American. Enrollment sits above 2,000 students and 55% of their students are economically disadvantaged.

Address:

Denton High School

3001 Bronco Way
Denton, TX 76207

Driving Directions from Sycamore Hall

From Sycamore Hall, drive north on South Welch street toward West Mulberry Street. Turn left on West Mulberry Street, then right onto Avenue A. Drive forward towards Fry street. Turn left onto West Oak Street. Turn left onto Bronco Way; the destination will be on the left.

Estimated travel time will be around 12 minutes. Please plan to arrive by 9:30 a.m. to allow for parking and setup.

Friday, May 9

Please reply to this email, so I know you received it. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.