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San Diego State Takes Over Washington, D.C. for the 2010 PRSSA National Conference

I just got home from the 2010 Public Relations Student Society of America’s National Conference in Washington, D.C. Now that I’m all settled and caught up on my homework, I wanted to share a few things I loved about this year’s conference.

Other than being in D.C. during the fall, touring the White House, and trying out different types of food, the conference provided me with a lot of information about PR. It is hard to choose what to discus because there was just so much valuable information from each of the guest speakers.

I think that my favorite speaker was Lauren Berger, also known as “The Intern Queen.” At only 25-years-old, she is the CEO of Intern Queen, Inc., a website designed to help college students find and apply for internships. She completely wowed me with her ‘life story’ and how she participated in 15 different internships during her 4 years of college. Most people only do one, if any at all. Her enthusiasm, excitement and dedication to helping other’s just like her find internships made me want to jump on her site ASAP and apply to as many internships I qualify for. She also had really good advice for when you do finally sit down and apply.

First, make sure you have a well-written cover letter. Berger says that “it’s where you connect the dots to your resume” and fill in any information that you haven’t already listed. The cover letter is where your supposed to sell yourself, so make sure you explain what makes you the best candidate for the internship or job you’re apply to.

Second, there are the two MUST haves as she puts it: business suits and thank you cards. Make sure you dress to impress, and you can’t go wrong wearing a nice suit. Have your thank you cards ready, and HAND write them. It says so much more if it’s hand written. Bring them with you to the interview, and find the nearest mailbox and drop it in. That way it gets to them quickly.

And lastly, if there is anything you should learn from Berger, remember this, “Put yourself out there. Take initiative. Tell people what you want or you may never get anywhere.”

Don’t be afraid to take risks, because until you do you won’t know what you’re capable of achieving.

I also really enjoyed our Keynote speaker Jim Margolis also known as “Obama’s Media Man”. Margolis spoke about how he worked on Obama’s Presidential campaign in 2008 and discussed the major strategies and tactics. He mentioned that they “wanted to create a movement, not just a campaign” and they did just that. One of their tactics was to embrace technology, so they took their campaign to the Internet. They invested in social media such as Facebook and Twitter to get their messages across, even creating an iPhone app.

Margolis had a lot of valuable information about PR and politics and how you can really get your message out there if you stick to it.

Those are just two of my favorite speakers, but there were so many more. I learned a lot inside the sessions, but I think that my most memorable experiences happened outside of conference with my wonderful PRSSASDSU friends. We were able to take D.C. by storm and experience the city together and I will cherish those memories forever.

I think our chapter president Robin Canedy sums up our wonderful trip by saying on her Facebook, “I can’t believe I woke up in Virginia, went to three Smithsonian museums, saw the White House, flew over some lightning storms and returned safely to San Diego all in one day. I love it!”

Thank you everyone for a safe and wonderful trip!

Today was the first day of Fall semester here at SDSU. My day went a little like this…

Woke up at 6:30am. Realized I didn’t wake up early enough to get ready, have coffee and eat breakfast like I have been all summer long. Something about 6:30 am on the first day of school was different. So I ate my waffle on my walk to work.

I got to work at 7:30am. No babies were there yet. So I was able to calm my fears of a day filled with crying, spit up and dirty diapers. The first baby to show up was Colton. He is a little ham. He has blond hair and big blue eyes; absolutely adorable.

Between 8 and 11am it’s kind of a blur. We were constantly feeding, changing and putting to sleep eight little babies.

I was hoping to be able to leave work around 10:50 - 10:55 but that didn’t work. I clocked out at 11:03 and my class started at 11:00. So I literally ran across campus to my class which was on the second floor in the heat. I was so hot and sweaty by the time I reached the class, which I walked in late on. Luckily for me there was a seat open in the front of class. Once I sat down I was sweating like a fat pig about to be slaughtered. The class only lasted 20 minutes. I was pretty upset that I had left work in a frenzy, ran across campus in the heat just to sweat my ass off for 15 minutes.

After class I went to Juice it Up to buy a smoothie and to relax. I was headed back to work at 12 and needed some “energy”. I saw a few of my friends and chit-chatted with them in the shade of a tree for about 20 minutes. Then it was back to work and the little babies.

Once I was back at work, we had more teachers than babies it seemed like. Most of them were napping. It was pretty much the same routine as earlier, except that I had a nice surprise awaiting me from Colton.

I was going to put Colton down for a nap and went to the bathroom to change his diaper. He has beginning stages of diaper rash, so the poor boy was screaming his head off. I felt so bad for him, not even his pacifier or a tambourine was helping. I didn’t know that we had any cream for him because most of the time the parents bring in special desitine or aquafour. When my boss came over and asked if he had a rash, so I pulled down the diaper to show her. When I did so, he of course began to pee. I didn’t notice at first. My arm had gotten wet, but I only presumed it to be his slobber and tears from him crying so much. But when I looked at him, pee was shooting out and I screamed, “aaah he’s peeing”.  After getting a new diaper on him and some new clothes, he was a happy camper and passed out in my arms.

My boss later told me, “Rachael you’ve been initiated. It means he really likes you!”

After I left work at 3pm I headed back onto campus for my English writing class. It’s a Techniques of Short Story, and I’m really excited because I already have 10 pages of my 30 page short story already written. Go me!

Now I’m home. Going to hit the books now. I’ve gotta be on top of my game. Also, I’m going to try and blog about my day everyday. Something from work and something from class.

Peace & Skittles <2