All About Amy

Being a senior in college and seeing graduation right on the horizon line is an exciting time for most. For me, although it is quite exciting, it is also quite frightening. Now is the time that I'm supposed to be figuring out exactly what I want to be doing with my life and how exactly I am going to get there. In the midst of all my overwhelmed-ness, I was excited to hear that a recent UW Whitewater PR graduate, Amy Paul, would be coming to speak to our class about where she is today in the PR world and how she got there. As Amy prepared her presentation, I noticed her opening slide was titled "preparing for your future" and gave her my full attention immediately.

Amy began her presentation by discussing her background and where she's currently employed.  Amy is currently an interactive account coordinator for a company called Ascedia. Here she works with digital marketing, website design, social media and more. It took a lot of hard work and dedication for Amy to get to where she is today though. Long before Ascedia, Amy was highly involved on the UW Whitewater campus especially in PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America). Amy always jumped at opportunities and definitely had a lot on her plate with being the insight editor, secretary, professional development chair, and regional activity coordinator for the organization. Along with her experiences involving PRSSA, Amy also had multiple internships that helped her gain even more experience. She has worked at the Children's Hospital as a fundraising/special events intern, Qdoba as a brand ambassador, the UWW development office as an intern as well as with the Milwaukee Admirals whom she still works with today. Following those internships, Amy has also worked at the Milwaukee County executive office as a PR assistant as well as Bottom Line Marketing & PR.

Amy gave us a lot of great advice and recommendations that I am going to remember when I am on the search for jobs/internships. Some of Amy's tips include starting your search for early, dressing appropriately, and not being afraid to ask for more responsibility. Amy encouraged us to network as well and how important it is to stay connected with professionals! She left us with a hopeful speech about putting ourselves out there, not giving up, and remembering to have fun. All in All, Amy's presentation put me at ease and made me remember that everyone else is going through the same thing and has the same nerves as I do. She reminded me that jobs/internships do not come easy, but with hard work and dedication anything is possible.

New At This

From Myspace to Facebook to Twitter to Blog, I am slowly taking over the web one social media site at a time! My name is Lauren Messenger and I am a student at University of Wisconsin Whitewater. I am currently in part one of my senior year (still have 3 more semesters to go), and will graduate with a major in public relations and a minor in marketing. Although I am still learning, I am currently loving the PR path I have taken and hopefully where it will take me in the future. I started out my college career at UW Milwaukee how every other student does; scared and completely clueless. I had no idea what I wanted to do or what career path I wanted to take, however I always had an interest in reading and writing so I decided to go with journalism. In the duration of the two years I spent at UWM I spent time in journalism classes and learning all about the communications field. In one of, if not my most difficult class I had taken there, I started to learn a little bit about PR. When I was given an assignment to create and write a press release, it immediately sparked my interest and from there I knew I wanted to do PR. I already wasn't too fond of the UW Milwaukee school system and when I found out they did not consider PR as a major, I decided that I wanted to transfer to UW Whitewater. So now here I am in my second year here studying and enjoying learning about the world of public relations. I am interested in event planning, social media, sports, and government so currently my future PR career could take me anywhere. I can't to see where it will lead me in the future.