One First Class Ticket. Final Destination: The Real World of Public Relations

Want to learn more about the real world of public relations? Want to meet PR professionals? Want an opportunity to observe public relations in action? Want to really sharpen your skills while building a resume and portfolio?

Look no further than your local college chapter of PRSSA. The Public Relations Student Society of America was founded by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) aiming to cultivate important, lasting relationships between students and professional public relations practitioners.

The mission of PRSSA is to enhance students’ knowledge of public relations, provide access to professional development opportunities and to serve the public relations profession by helping to develop highly qualified, well-prepared professionals.                                                                                                                                 (Image from prssa.org)

PRSSA offers great tools, opportunities and advantages for students planning to enter the professional world of public relations after college.

• PRSSA provides dozens of media for individual members to communicate with the Society’s national leadership; these resources provide opportunities only members can benefit from.

• PRSSA and its sponsors give away $20,000 each year to winners in national scholarship and award competitions.

• PRSSA offers students the opportunity to travel to exciting cities across the country and participate in professional and leadership development programs.

As students we often here, “PR is about who you know.” The most intrinsically valuable benefit of a PRSSA membership is the affiliation with PRSA. PRSA is the ‘who’ to know. With over 20,000 members and 124 chapters, the PRSA/PRSSA relationship offers you a vast majority of potential employers.

PRSSA currently has chapters in all but 5 of the United States. If your college has a PRSSA chapter, get in contact with the chapter president and find out when and where meetings take place.

PRSSA is a once in a lifetime, (4 years in college does feel like a lifetime) experience every public relations student should consider. This truly is your ultimate, first-class ticket into the real world of public relations.