Back to School

Being in your final year of university, you would never ever imagine in your wildest dreams that you would be going back to high school. But for me, I somehow managed to be back there and even the high school I attended myself, Mercedes College.

Being back at school brings a sense of euphoria, remembering how young you were and you had your whole life ahead of you. I knew nothing about where I would be at 21, let alone what I would go onto study. I had my passions and keen interests of drama and media, and thinking about it now they tie perfectly in with a Public Relations degree and effectively communicating

As part of my internship placement, I was offered a role in the Community Relations office at Mercedes College alongside two other ladies, Julie and Tanya.  The Community Relations focuses on both Public Relations and Marketing and opened my eyes up to how effective and important Public Relations can be in a school. I’m sure half of you wouldn’t even think a school would need a PR team or what would they do, but surprisingly a lot goes on. From the organisation of major events, internal communication and communication with stakeholders, alumni events and relations, the production of a College magazine, data entry, managing phone calls and emails, my schedule was kept extremely busy.

Out of everything I got to do, my favourite thing would have to be liaising with Alumni and assisting in the organisation of reunions. As I am Alumni of Mercedes College myself, I felt a connection with every single Alumni I interacted with, no matter how old they were. I think that is something special Mercedes holds with its students, whether they are past or current, there always seems to be that ongoing connection and sense of belonging.

I am incredibly grateful for my experience at the College, all the work I got to participate in and the staff I got to call my colleagues. It was only today that I found out I have been offered a position in the Community Relations Office full time next year after I graduate, and I can’t wait to see what I can bring to the office and school. 

Back when I was 14 and had no idea what I would be doing after school

Never Ending

Hey Bloggers,

I hope everyone is celebrating at the prospect of handing in this insane report!

It has been two weeks since I have completed my internship at Rossmoyne Senior High School, and for some unknown reason I am still working for them.
In this time, I have sent out two press releases to the Canning Times on a couple of stories that I worked on during my actual internship, continued organising the and liaising with the volunteers I acquired after my little presentation at the Curtin Event Management 304 class a few weeks back, and updating the school’s alumni database on its new members. I guess work is never ending in the public relations sector, but to that end I have enjoyed myself these past two months.

On the final day of my internship, I received not only a token of appreciation but a severely long, but amazing speech from the school principal thanking me on all my contributions. This was definitely a highlight as I have never once received any form of recognition throughout my high school years. I guess, in hindsight everyone is able to redeem themselves if you put in the effort to.

I do believe my greatest achievement was the launch of the Alumni program which has the potential ability to attract all of Rossmoyne’s past graduates back to 1968. Granted it has not taken off to a speeding manner I would have hoped for, however I still believe it does has the ability to be something great should the school invest more time, and finances into promoting it.
Although the internship has ended, my relationship with my high school hasn’t. I was offered to help organise and run the Alumni launch event, which will be held early on next year; considering it is my baby, I do believe I could spend a few extra days in addition to this internship to help the school that provided many highs and lows for over 5 years.

For those who attended Rossmoyne Senior High School, I encourage you to join the alumni program via http://rossmoyne.wa.edu.au/Community/Alumni.aspx

Finally, I would like to wish each PR 393 student all the best in your future endeavours. I believe through our internships, and the lessons learnt over the last three years at Curtin would greatly assist us in developing successful careers in years to come.

Bryan Teo
13968366

Post-it Overdose

Hey PR Bloggers,

After four weeks of waking at 7am, high intensity pressures and numerous corrections with a red pen, I am currently approaching the end of my internship at Rossmoyne Senior High School.

As one approaches the end of the road, whether it may be the end of another semester at university or a compulsory internship, one would assume that the work load would slowly diminish, allowing their inner demon by the name of slack rise up from deep within. However this isn’t the case for me.

With just one full day left at my internship, I swear my workload is getting larger than Britney Spears herself. I am not entirely sure, but I have this strange feeling that since my time here has reached the point of extreme limitation, my fellow colleagues and supervisors are keen to make the most of this free labor.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. I mean I’ve been told countless of times to reject any additional workload if I can’t handle it; but as an intern, I am keen to make the most out of this experience and to learn as much as I can. This is why I am now swimming in a sea of post it notes.

For the past week and a half I have been organizing and developing the school’s alumni program. This include website design and layout; building and writing up information for it’s content; develop an appropriate application form and organizing staff meetings for those interested in being apart of the committee.

Once again, my heart had it’s little leap of joy when the content for the alumni program was launched on the school’s website. Although it wasn’t 100 percent similar to my designs, just having the approval nod from the school principal was a reward to the long hours I spent working on it.

As I commence my final day, I have signed on for a few more last minute projects including writing up four more articles for the school’s newsletters and four press releases to go with it; organize the distribution of 350 alumni application forms to this year’s graduates with letters attached to it; and to write up an event proposal for the launch event of the alumni association.

From day one of PR 200, we were taught that to be successful in this industry, and well pretty much any industry, we need to be highly organized, and have excellent time management skills. Obviously this is not the case for me, however I am determined to get everything done before I leave, even if it means I have to skip Friday drinks with the teachers.