What The Public Relations Student Society Of America Has To Offer

The Public Relations Student Society Of America is one of the largest pre-professional organizations in the world. Students from all over the nation join PRSSA with the notion they will be better prepared for the working world, but what they get is so much more.

 PRSSA gives students access to many professionals who are already working in the public relations, communications, and marketing industry.  Since joining my schools PRSSA chapter one year ago, I have had the opportunity to travel across the country, network with colleagues and professionals above me, and understand how important it is to invest in myself and market myself to future prospects.

We live in a time where we eat, sleep, and breath the term “networking.” PRSSA has showed me how to network in a way that goes further than adding someone on LinkedIn and simply calling him or her “a connection.” I now make a point to build a meaningful and mutually beneficial relationship with any professional I come across.

The whole idea of branding yourself is something most people get the overall concept of, but don’t act on. PRSSA has allowed me to find issues, organizations, and ideas that are important to me, along with providing me with the right tools to voice my opinion in a meaningful and effective way. Sometimes it is easy to just throw a label next to your name and say you are for it, PRSSA helps connect students to the causes they care about. An example of this for me would be politics. I have grown up around politics, and have always wanted to support the campaigns I felt sent the right message.  Through PRSSA I was able to connect with several people organizing campaigns and had the opportunity to help out with the upcoming presidential election.

Traveling while in college is not always the easy. Through PRSSA I have had the chance to travel across the country, and will continue traveling this year. The PRSSA national level host conferences, and assemblies throughout the academic year all over the US, and is open to all members. I was very fortunate to be selected as my chapter’s national delegate last year making the trip very affordable. That is an opportunity that any student has, they just have to go after it.

Besides traveling, branding yourself, and networking there are many more advantages to being a member of PRSSA, but the one that ultimately has had a substantial influence on me is the feeling that you are a part of something bigger than yourself. To me, meeting so many amazing young and motivated students from all walks of life is something I will always be grateful for. Through PRSSA I not only have connections from all over, but I have friends who I look forward to seeing and talking with every year. The relationships you build from your local chapter to meeting members at the national level is nothing shy of an amazing experience, and I would not only recommend PRSSA to every college student, but advise it. You will not regret the memories, and opportunities ahead of you.