Amy Paul's Visit

Yesterday our tactics 2 class was fortunate enough to have guest speaker, and former UW-Whitewater student Amy Paul come and speak to us. Amy graduated this past spring with a Communications major, Public Relations emphasis, and a minor in music. Her current job is a public relations assistant for the Milwaukee County executive’s office. Some of her responsibilities include social media management, press releases/media advisories, monitor media coverage, website management, plan major events, and responds to media calls. A big project that she just finished up with was the September 11^th tribute downtown called Milwaukee County remembers 9/11. She was in charge of planning who was going to be speaking, making the event pamphlets and thinking of a logo for the event. Amy mentioned that she was assigned this task a little over a month before it actually took place and I think she did an amazing job being able to think on her toes and getting the whole event to take place. How she got to where she is today is from her internships, involvement on campus, and networking. The internships she had while she was in school were with the Admirals, Qdoba, the UWW University development office, and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. She also mentioned that all of these internships were unpaid, however, they all provided her with more experience than any paid internship could have given her. I appreciated this piece of advice because I never really looked at unpaid internships because I needed something that was going to compensate me for my work; however, any experience is going to make the potential candidate stand out more than someone with no experience. On campus , Amy was very involved with PRSSA by writing their insight editor, she was the professional development chair, being regional activity coordinator, and attending the national PRSSA conference in Washington, D.C. Some of her recommendations were to make the most of our college experience, don’t be afraid to ask questions at internships, network, get involved, don’t give up, and have fun. The recommendation that I liked the most was her advice she gave me on writing a cover letter. She recommended that I make it more personal and like a story rather than just telling them this is who I am and this is why I want the internship. She offered out her social media information including twitter: @AP2005, Webs: http://www.amypaul.webs.com/, LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/amypaul04, and Facebook: Amy Paul.  

The PR Student

                My name is Brittany Kutchera and I’m a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I’m a double major in Public Relations and Spanish, however, that decision did not dawn on me over night. My last minute decision to come to Whitewater was exciting because I was the first one out of my family of six to move out of the house and attend an actual University. After my first year I decided to move back home to save money and commute to UWM but it was not the ideal life for me. After my sophomore year I was financially stable enough to move out and pay for school, so upon re-entering Whitewater I declared my major as Public Relations. I received sixteen retro credits after taking a placement test  for Spanish so I could either graduate early or double major, and since the job market is not ideal right now I decided the more knowledge I have, the more marketable I am to potential employers and chose to double major.

                After this semester I have only one more PR class to take before I’m finished with the program, however, I hope to find an internship this semester or the next. Internships are essential in our field and I hope to acquire one that will hopefully provide a great learning experience and possibly offer me a position for the future. I would love to travel with my career and hopefully work in a position that would offer me the opportunity to work with international affairs. I’m just excited to be the first in my family to graduate from a four year university with no loans. It’s hard to say where I see myself in ten years but I’m sure my assortment of internships, jobs, and experiences will make a path in the right direction towards where I want to be with my career in the future.