It’s hard to believe we’re already in week 7 of the spring semester! The Baylor Oso Public Relations Agency is so pleased to be working with wonderful clients like the BRIC, the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce.
One of the hardest parts of working on a client project as a student is finding a time to meet as a group. Most of us in the class are juniors or seniors and have ample experience working with others, and falling into a new group of highly intelligent, focused individuals is not a problem. Division of labor is not usually an issue, as most of us are genuinely interested in the work we are doing and are trying our hardest to do good work. Creativity, quality and finished product are generally wonderful, as having individuals from many different backgrounds allows for vastly different ideas. But getting us all together makes up in hardness for the rest of our seemingly effortless work.
Between class, work and social organizations, we barely find time to eat and sleep, let alone pour over data and write an analysis about gathered information. Somehow, we always make it work. It might be that one of us Skype’s with the rest of the group or takes a screenshot of necessary data to email to everyone else. Sometimes we meet at midnight or very early in the morning. Frequently we meet short amounts of time, long enough to produce a draft to be edited multiple times by each of us separately.
This method probably would not have worked before we were able to communicate via Twitter, Facebook or smartphone. Social media and being able to receive emails on phones has made group work much easier. We can now communicate with each other instantly without having to track down where someone is.
Of course we have all learned about working with clients this semester. At this moment I’m revising a survey to be administered to potential graduate students, something I never thought I would know how to do while still in college. Even more so, we have learned about effective team work, and how to make the most out of what little time we have together.
I am very pleased with the work our class has done this semester and am anxious to see how this all looks in the end!
By Sara Lemister
