Susquehanna’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) recently claimed honors for its organ donation awareness campaign on Nov. 19 at the The Keystone Awards, hosted by the Central Pennsylvania PRSSA Chapter.
“Move the Line” was created in the spring 2019 semester as part of a nationwide campaign hosted by PRSSA to raise awareness on becoming an organ donor.
The Keystone Awards is an annual event hosted by the central Pennsylvania PRSA chapter, recognizing excellence in public relations in central Pennsylvania. Susquehanna’s PRSSA chapter placed second in the competition, and was the only student chapter to win an award.
Senior and PRSSA President Samantha Carpentiere played a vital role in preparing for the competition, and was excited by what the group achieved.
Carpentiere said, “We kind of just threw ourselves into this campaign thinking it would be an amazing idea to get our PRSSA students some real world experience. Never did we ever expect to receive so much recognition for our work.”
PRSSA faculty advisor and Professor of communications Linda Burkley was also happy with the results at the regional competition.
“I am so very proud of our chapter, especially when I learned that our campaign entry scored the second highest score of all,” Burkley said.
At the Keystone Awards, Susquehanna students competed against public relations agencies, non-profit organizations and individual practitioners. The competition is judged by public relations professionals, giving students an opportunity to learn from the evaluations to use in their careers.
Preparing for the competition was intensive, as PRSSA members prepared the different components that made up the entire competition.
Carpentiere said, “We had to create a brand for our campaign, a main event, promotional content and materials [with] a lot of behind the scenes brainstorming and work.”
Burkley sees competitions such as this one for organ donor awareness as invaluable in gaining practical experience.
“Any time I have a chance to involve students in a competition where they can see real results of their efforts and evaluate their decisions, I take it. The feedback that we are provided by judges and other professionals is invaluable to the learning process,” she said.
Carpentiere also sees high value in transferring what is learned in the classroom into professional level campaigns.
“Members get to see the campaign built from start to finish,” Carpentiere said.“They help in idea generation, content creation and campaign promotion. Rather than a classroom simulation these are real, materialized campaigns.”
The chapter also entered the campaign into competitions hosted by PRSSA. They placed first at a state level while earning honorable mention at October’s national conference.
“This whole process, especially winning the top state prize over the summer, has been particularly motivating for students,” Burkley said. She hopes the success in this year’s competition can translate into future success.
“Now that we’ve won, there’s a motivation to uphold our award-winner status,” Burkley continued.