I finished my first semester of PR at Humber College, they weren’t kidding when they said it was more like bootcamp than school.  To sum it up, it was a continuous learning process and I was fortunate enough to get some really great experience.

Clean Train Coalition Student Info Session - 3 Media Releases/ 1 hour

Bocci ball with Humber PR peeps

WHY NOT WEDNESDAY?

From February to June I participated in the media planning for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Great Strides Walk (I know it’s a mouthful). I did everything from writing media alerts to fearfully calling my first journalist to pitch the story. I survived and met some incredible people along the way. Check out Reddy for a Cure,  65_RedRoses and Hattie’s Blog. You will see what I mean when I say it was an insprirational experience.

Now I am halfway through the final semester, I can see the finish line, ligh at the end of the tunnel and all those other ‘Yippee, I am done’ clichés.

Last week I attended the IABC Student World Conference. The speakers were really great and I feel like I really belong in this business. Public Relations is what I was born to do.

There is lots of really cool jobs out there for professional communicators but I am leaning more towards the non-profit or corporate responsibility sectors. Or perhaps agency, I guess I just want to try it all.

I participated in the case study competition at the conference sponsored by DIRECTV…my group won! We got hooked up with some DIRECTV swag and $100. We also made some new friends, and I am more and more aware of the importance of these networking opportunities and building lasting relationships.

my group sans uno (Robyn)

Dan (from Connecticut) and myself presenting

The most important tidbit I took away from the conference was making sure you write down your goals, I always thought this was sort of an over sentinmental/cheesy thing. But I am believer now!

Goal for 2010:

Find a really great internship that will lead to a really great job where I can use my skills to help people.

Who knows where I will end up, but one thing is for sure. You have not seen the last of me!

Saturday night I went to Dundas Square for Earth Hour. The square was packed with street performers, families and people mildly curious about the commotion.  On stage was Dina Pugliese from Breakfast Television and co-host Frank.  David Miller was also there, I interviewed the mayor on Friday (I’ll tell you about that some other time).

I was excited to see ALL the lights go out downtown, to stand in the middle of the brightest intersection in Canada, in complete darkness. That didn’t quite happen. Yes, some lights went out and it was darker than usual. But, I was a little underwhelmed. A large office building beside the square kept their lights on taking away from what could have been a dramatic show. And to my dismay, most stores kept their window display lights on, even though they were closed. Sears was the only store to shut down all their lights, good for them!

Me and Mr. Guy

After the lights "went out"

That was the first part of my weekend. Sunday night, I volunteered at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame gala, I met Rush, an inductee into the hall of fame. That was cool.

I learned a lot about PR for major events, and how to deal with celebrity publicists and the media. It was chaotic, but I enjoy a little chaos, it keeps things interesting.

I had an interesting encounter on the subway, on my way home from volunteering at gala, about 5 young teens broke out in a rap/song about world peace and change. While I admit I was slightly annoyed at the time (it was late and I was tired),  when I got off the subway I just felt good. Their message resonated with me, why do people, like myself,  find it so strange when people pass along a message of kindness and love. It made me think, what can I do?

“Smile, for no reason except to make the people you meet smile back”  It’s as simple as that.

Have a nice week : )

I have made another interesting observation: appearance is everything. In the real world you have about 30 seconds to make a good first impression, and I would say 50% of this is your non-verbal cues (dress, hair, body language, facial expressions and more).  Before coming to PR, I was in Journalism school for a short 4 months. I went to school in sweats, I never did my hair and I hadn’t used blush or lip gloss in months.  PR is different.   I now take pride in my appearance and I feel successful and intelligent in business dress.  The first time I asked my Mom to take me suit shopping her face lit up with pride. My mom dresses to the nines every day, she always looks good, and I am the daughter that thought dark jeans were ‘dressy’ enough.  I know better now, and on a word of advice from a teacher: Dress for the job you want!

I love this white metallic sheen suit! I want one!

Thursday night I went to hear the Toronto Blog Stars speak about how they became successful on the internet and how they built up their brands; and I was surprised that it was the idea of face- to-face interaction that was a common thread in their successes.  All the bloggers spoke about the persona’s they created online, but IRL their online identity didn’t sway too far from their true personalities. This makes them good at what they, actually GREAT, at what they do.

You know the saying, write what you know. Well Sean Ward, Casie Stewart and Raymi The Minx do just that they write about their most intimate subject: themselves. 

Their talk gave me some great tips and tricks for differentiating yourself in a sea of bloggers and brands. Be committed:  this means updating your blog and twitter regularly. (Ok, I admit I haven’t been the best at updating) Find your thing: if you have something that makes you unique play it up. And my fav tip of the night: ignore the HATERS.

School has been the majority of my life for the past 6 years, University and now college. It’s an exciting challenge cramming for exams, shopping on a budget and finding cheap beer nights anywhere I can.

University Waterloo grad

If you don’t know by now, I live in Toronto and I am learning how to become a young professional while navigating my way through this GIGANTIC city. (I am from a small town with one stop light, Toronto still seems hugely massive to me)

My City!

Here’s what I have been up to in the past couple months:

1. I am taking public relations at Humber College.

2. I have made some wicked friends. 

 3. I took a subway for the first time in my life a few months ago…the platform was terrifying. I am a confident TTC rider now – minus the jam-packed buses and frequent unexplained stops.

4. I am part of a professional association CPRS. I have had a chance to meet some intelligent business professionals in the field.

5. I started a blog, I tweet, I am on LinkedIn and Formspring.me - My social media prowess  is emerging everyday.

6. I am volunteering at LG Fashion Week! (eek…I need some new clothes)

7. I have some other volunteer jobs on the go – Canada Blooms show and Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis. (I love lending my skills to amazing causes)

8. I have been to a party on the 40th floor of a highrise apartment building in downtown Toronto completely conquering my fear of heights.

9. The aforementioned party was a blog party with my cool new mentor Casie Stewart- she is teaching me everything she knows about making the most of my online identity.

And drum roll please….

10. I sang karaoke at the Gladstone hotel –  Third Eye Blind, The Jumper

This is me. I hope to share more with you soon.

I have to admit, I didn’t make it through the entire Oscars last night. After watching two hours of red carpet pageantry I was pretty disappointed in the lacklustre award show. Albeit, Neil Patrick Harris is the bomb, the awards seemed to drone on and I fell asleep after 30 minutes. The Academy Awards, needs to rethink the format.  Viewers tune in to check out the big names, which always come at the very end after people like myself have stopped watching.

However, I was stoked that Kathryn Bigelow took home best director for The Hurt Locker, first time a female has ever garnered that title. And how fitting it happens to be International Women’s Day.

My favourite and least favourite dresses were quite a surprise to me. Miley Cyrus’ gown was stunning, something I wasn’t expecting from the pop princess.

My least favourite was Charlize Theron, I am such a fan of hers, and she usually “wows” me. This time not so much.

Supposed to be flowers, but looks more like icing on a cupcake.

I have to say Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were hilarious, and seemed to irritate Geroge Clooney in their opening monologue. (GC seemed generally irritated the whole night)

Overall though, the Oscar’s were Hollywood at its finest: glamorous and star studded.

Dear Academy:

Next year make the awards shorter, so I can stay awake.

Sarah

I am so proud to be surrounded by such successful and inspiring individuals. My classmates from Humber College PR organized an amazing fundraiser last night for Real Sight Keepers, an organization that raises money to help cure blindness in Tibet. I was informed recently that Tibet has the highest rate of blindness in the world and the money raised goes to help train Tibetan doctors to perform eye surgery. Amazing!

S0 for $55 (the poor people rate…i mean student rate) I enjoyed a beautiful three course meal in COMPLETE darkness, at O Noir restaurant. It was an unbelievable and touching experience. I literally held my hand 2 inches from my nose and could feel the warmth but not see it, at all. After a few minutes of pure fear I let my inhibitions go and conversation flowed naturally between my other Humber peeps.

I ended up eating with my hands, don’t judge, it was too hard to find my utensils.

Afterwords we were led out into the light again, a remarkable metaphor for giving Tibetan people the chance to see again.

Kudos to my classmates Kaitlynn Dodge, Sarah State and Robyn Landau for paying it forward.

Check out more pics on my Facebook page.