Duquesne’s Chapter Expands its Professional Network

By Duquesne PRSSA

This semester, our chapter has taken advantage of the large amount of opportunities the city of Pittsburgh offers us. Our proximity to the vast quantity of resources in the city has always been there; however, we never seemed to utilize these to the fullest potential. We pride ourselves in conducting an agency tour in the fall and hosting our own networking event on campus in the spring. While we still plan to continue with these events, we decided to switch the normal routine up.

This semester, instead of an agency tour, we hosted and attended several professional and network-building events. We first hosted on campus an alumna of our chapter – a former president in 2015 – to speak to potential members about the benefits of PRSSA. While anyone on the current executive board could provide a list of benefits of joining, we decided that if students heard how a communications professional has, and still is, benefiting from being a part of PRSSA, it might have a larger impact.

In October, several members attended PRSA Pittsburgh’s First Annual PR Summit “Disruption and the Search for Authenticity.” This was different, yet more beneficial, than a firm tour as members were offered the chance to network with many PR, advertising, communications and journalism professionals at once in their own setting. It provided members a real-world experience away from the comfortable environment of campus.

In November, members attended the discussion panel Embracing and Overcoming Difference: Diversity and Inclusion in Marketing and Advertising hosted by Gatesman on our campus. This event was small enough to allow members to interact on a personal level with many of the professionals, including the current president of Gatesman and professionals from PNC Bank.

While we still plan on continuing next semester with an agency tour and our networking event in the spring as usual, these three simple, yet advantageous, opportunities have allowed us to be more prepared and gain more experience for hosting our own chapter event. Each year we strive to make it bigger and better, and we believe this year we have all the tools to do so thanks to the public relations community in Pittsburgh.