PRSSA Networking Event

Last month, I went to a dinner hosted by UVU PRSSA chapter. PRSSA stands for Public Relations Student Society of America and is a unit of PRSA (Public Relations Society of America). While PRSA provides professional development for public relations professionals in general, PRSSA targets students who are pursuing careers in PR. The speaker of the event was John J. Seng, CEO and founder of Spectrum. I always want do non-profit PR; however, getting a decent salary with a non-profit for fresh out of college is not possible. Therefore, I've been looking for another career path before I settle down in non-profits. Seng's talk introduced me to health PR, a field I had never heard of PR, and inspired me to do something with health PR.

Seng started as a journalist with a few different magazines and newspapers before he decided that health PR is something that he wanted to do. Then Seng taught us how health PR has changed the public awareness and how to use story telling to influence publics. Seng then told the story of Sam Berns and what health PR professionals have done to raise awareness about the disease. Sam Berns suffers from progeria, a rare disease that accelerates the aging process. Seng felt like people need to know about this disease and he worked with Sam Berns to come up with an awareness campaign about progeria. I felt touched when Seng show a short clip of a BBC documentary about Sam Berns. At that moment, I realize health PR can have the same impacts as non-profit PR. Moreover, health PR provides me the opportunities to work with different clients and learn from different aspects of PR before working for a non-profit and solely supporting that organization. I also had a chance to talk with Seng after the dinner and so far I have benefited a lot from the connection with him.

Before the dinner, I came to a few PRSSA events but I did not feel like I learned something from those events. The dinner at UVU changed my mind and I regret that I was not active in PRSSA. Now I have a better vision about my future. Therefore, I will often come to PRSSA events, network with PR professionals, and expand my knowledge about health PR.