AdPR Alumni spotlight: Neil Hirsch

Neil Hirsch

Neil Hirsch currently works as Global External Communications Manager for Novelis Inc.

What was your major and when did you graduate?

My major was Public Relations and graduated Magna Cum Laude with Honors in May 2000.

What activities were you involved while in Grady/UGA?

I was very active in PRSSA, serving as an officer for several years.  I also was one of three student coordinators for PR Day in 2000.  I was active in several community service groups on campus, participated in Leadership UGA and worked at the UGA Visitors Center for three years as a tour guide.

What are you doing now and how did you get there?

Since graduating from Grady, I have spent my entire career in the Atlanta area.  I started out in a small PR agency, but spent the last 12 years of my career in various corporate communications roles.  I have invested heavily in building relationships with my peers in the profession and each progressive move in my career can be traced back to that network in some way.  I’m a big believer that who you know may help open doors and what you know will get you the job.

In the case of my current role, I previously worked for someone who the hiring manager also knew and respected.  That personal recommendation moved me to the top of the consideration list, but it was my experience that ultimately got me the job.

What is your day-to-day like at your job? (Any interesting projects that you can share with us?)

I work at our global headquarters in Buckhead.  No day is the same.  Today I will work on the final preparations for our earnings announcement next week; handle any media inquiries we might receive; prepare a presentation for our CEO; manage our social media channels; work on a crisis communications workshop we are developing and review a blog post one of our executives has prepared.  I love the variety and the global nature of my role.   

What part of your Grady experience (classes, professors, etc.) has been helpful in your career today?

My time at Grady served as a strong foundation for my career.  Grady was where I found my home at UGA.  My first two years at UGA, in many ways, I felt like just a number in many of my large lecture courses.  That changed when I began my major coursework.  I forged strong, meaningful relationships with many of my professors.  I’m friends of Facebook with several of them and just saw Dr. Sallot yesterday.  Even 13 years after graduating, I still value their counsel and appreciate their interest in my life.  I also forged what would become some lifelong friends among my peers at Grady.  I’ve been to their weddings, seen them become parents and shared in their career successes along the way.  Finally, my PRSSA participation was a springboard for my career.  That’s where I was exposed to leaders of PRSA who became important mentors to me and led me down the path of service to our profession.  I’m excited to be serving as the president of the Georgia Chapter of PRSA next year – we’re the second-largest chapter in the nation with 800+ members.  I can trace that achievement back to my days at Grady.

What is your favorite Grady memory?

The year I helped to coordinate PR Day, our keynote speaker was a communications director from General Motors.  For someone who always loved cars, it seemed like the perfect job for a PR professional.  It gave me a vision for what I wanted to do in my career – combining my professional skill set with a personal passion.  By 2002, I was working as a communications specialist at Ford Motor Company in Atlanta and it was a great experience.

What advice do you have for current AdPR students?

Take advantage of all the opportunities around you – both inside and outside the classroom.  Entering the workforce gets more competitive each year, so it’s important to do all you can today to prepare for tomorrow.  Whether that’s being an active member in professional groups at Grady, attending guest lectures, volunteering for organizations to lead communications efforts, interning while you take classes or building relationships with professionals you meet, there are so many great ways to further enrich your Grady experience.  It’s up to you to make it happen.

Athens Area Community Foundation CEO Delene Porter Speaks to PR Class

Delene Porter

Delene Porter, the CEO/President of the Athens Area Community Foundation, visited Grady College earlier this month to speak on nonprofit organizations, fundraising and public relations. Porter visited Dr. Lynne Sallot's Public Relations and Fundraising class.

"I was especially glad to have Delene come meet with our students because community foundations are very unique in the nonprofit world, and this one grew out of the One Athens/Partners for a Prosperous Athens initiatives to address poverty in our local community and several of my PR Campaigns classes — and Dr. Karen Russell's — worked on those initiatives," Dr. Sallot said.

The AACF is a public nonprofit serving six counties that focuses on local charitable giving. Porter is also an outreach faculty member of UGA's Fanning Institute, and has previously worked for the Georgia Community Loan Fund, Inc.

Alumni Spotlight: Savannah Highsmith

Savannah Highsmith

Savannah Highsmith is a May 2012 graduate who majored in public relations with a New Media certificate and a communications studies minor.

What are you doing now and how did you get there? I'm an assistant account executive at Edelman in the Atlanta office, working in the consumer practice. It's only been two months since I graduated and started working there, but I've already learned so much! I interned with Edelman the summer in between my junior and senior years, which helped get my foot in the door.

What is your day-to-day like at your job? (Any interesting projects that you can share with us?) Absolutely crazy -- but in a good way! Never a dull moment, that's for sure. My biggest clients are Brawny paper towels, Quilted Northern toilet paper, Masterbuilt (cooking products like grills, fryers, steamers) and Adobe (as in Photoshop, inDesign, etc.). Speaking of interesting projects -- I'm actually on a flight as we speak to NYC for Brawny and Quilted Northern! Both brands are participating in the annual BlogHer conference, a trade show for female bloggers. So exciting!

What part of your Grady experience (classes, professors, etc.) has been helpful in your career today? I certainly wouldn't be where I am right now without Grady! I'll never forget the lessons I learned from Dr. Sallot in PR communications -- she taught us to "write tight" and that has been so helpful. And getting AP Style drilled into my brain daily by Dr. Sweetser (and many others) has actually paid off in a big way! I think the most valuable thing I took away from Grady, however, is my participation in the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). Both of those organizations allowed me to explore the PR/communications industry while still in school and they both opened up so many doors for me. In fact, it was at an IABC Atlanta event my sophomore year that I met my first contact at Edelman; she has remained a close friend and mentor to this day!

Expect the unexpected. You never know where and when that opportunity of a lifetime will pop up, you just have to be ready when it does!

What is your favorite Grady memory? This is a tough question, but I think my absolute favorite memory has to be Grady graduation. It was a night I'll never forget, where we all came together to celebrate all we had accomplished and it was amazing to see how far we had all come since we had been accepted into Grady just years before. It was also so wonderful to see how close we had all become and to know that the relationships we had formed were going to enter the "real world" along with us.

What advice do you have for current AdPR students? Get out of the classroom. Get out of your comfort zone. Explore and discover as much as you can about the industry. Go to networking events, not just on campus, but in Atlanta, New York -- wherever -- and learn as much as you can. Network as  much as possible, but don't just do it to get a job or internship, do it to forge meaningful relationships that will be mutually beneficial all throughout your career. And lastly -- expect the unexpected. You never know where and when that opportunity of a lifetime will pop up, you just have to be ready when it does!

UGA PR Campaigns Class Tackles Three Important Campus Issues

This past semester, student teams in Dr. Lynne Sallot’s public relations capstone campaigns course created and executed PR campaigns for three pressing issues at UGA: Texting and driving, smoking on campaign, and alcohol education. The integrated plans were driven by extensive research. Dr. Sallot is a Meigs Professor in the Department of Advertising & Public Relations at the University of Georgia.

Stop inTXTication@UGA
The first team of nine students focused on raising awareness regarding the dangers of texting and driving on the UGA campus. First, to gauge attitudes related to the issue, they conducted 17 focus groups in which 160 UGA students participated. The group also researched 37 peer and aspirational institutions and conducted face-to-face interviews with UGA and ACC Police and a College of Public Health professor who works on traffic safety issues.

Research revealed that although students are aware of the dangers of texting and driving, they continue to practice it. They also found that ads such as those produced by AT&T in which drivers’ last texts are shown were more effective than ads that are more graphic.

Based on this research, the team designed a logo and slogan- "Stop inTXTication@UGA. Save it for L8R. Don't text and drive." Also, an awareness campaign was created to be further developed and implemented by the fall PR campaigns class.

The Facebook page for the campaign can be found under Stop inTXTication@UGA.

Please watch their public service announcement.

Breathe Easy UGA
A second team concentrated on the issue of smoking on the UGA campus. They knew there had been discussion within the University and SGA of a change in the smoking policy. The team set out to discover student opinion regarding smoking on campus as well as a potential new policy presented to President Adams before the decision he would make on March 24th. The group conducted 17 focus groups of 160 UGA students, a survey of 400 students, reviewed 36 institutional research reports and interviews experts in the field.

They found a majority of students prefer a ban of some sort and that only 16% of students self-report that they smoke. Additionally, research showed most students felt they were affected by smoking on campus in some way, especially in the breezeway of the Miller Learning Center and at bus stops.

When President Adams announced the new policy that people are no longer allowed to smoke within 35 feet of building entrances or windows, bus stops, breezeways or on the new Health Sciences Campus, the team wanted to promote this.

They created the Breathe Easy UGA campaign, designing a logo and creating Facebook and Twitter accounts to spread awareness of the new policy and encourage students not to smoke in those areas.

Find the campaign on Facebook under Breathe Easy UGA.

Follow the campaign on Twitter @breatheeasyuga

Watch their public service announcements on their YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/BreatheEasyUGA

Alcohol and Drugs
The last team had three parts to their campaign: To improve the effectiveness of alcohol education at UGA, to address the needs of the Designated Dawgs, and to improve student perception of taxi safety in Athens. In addition to 17 focus groups, the group also interviewed four Health Center representatives, several Athens-Clarke County and UGA police officers, an assistant to President Adams, a representative from the Office of Student Conduct and an attorney in UGA’s Office of Legal Affairs.

Research showed that students think the current online alcohol education program, MyStudentBody, was not as effective as perceived. They also found that students have major concerns regarding taxis in Athens, including safety, inconsistency of fares, reliability and overcrowding. Finally, the team found that the major concern for Designated Dawgs was a need for volunteers.

Based on this research, the team proposes to introduce a supplemental peer-to-peer interactive program, YourID (Your Informed Decision), that will include student testimonials to better educate UGA students on alcohol. To promote awareness of safe taxi cab companies, they created a Facebook page with taxi company contact information, pictures of taxi vehicles and general news updates. The group hopes this will encourage students to use taxis to avoid drinking and driving as well as to help students identify which taxis are legitimate from those that are not. Last, the team gave social media and website suggestions to the Designated Dawgs and created a press kit for them to attract more volunteers and raise awareness for the program.

Find the Facebook page with taxi information under Athens Taxicabs

Facebook page for Designated Dawgs