One way to engage in PRSA, advance the profession and guide future professionals is to offer internship programs at your place of business. Internships provide a real-life educational opportunity to students who are interested in public relations, enhance community relations with your local colleges and universities, and deliver meaningful contributions to your office.

While employed in the hospitality industry, I was able to provide more than 450 internships to students from three major universities. I still hear from many of them as they make significant career decisions. It’s been a mutually rewarding experience, both personally and professionally.

Like many in our profession, I remember my early days in public relations fondly. I was a wide-eyed, high school sophomore when I first started working with the sports information staff in the athletic department at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss to anyone from the South). At home football games each fall, the press box at Hemingway Stadium was packed with sportswriters and columnists representing many of the major newspapers in the South — The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal, The Jackson Clarion-Ledger, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to name a few. Those writers were rock stars in my eyes and handing play-by-play sheets and halftime statistics to such legends as Furman Bisher and Hubert Mizell was truly a thrill.

Fast forward 35 years to today, when the 2010 college football season unofficially begins with the convening of Southeastern Conference (SEC) Football Media Days outside Birmingham. Ala. There are still many newspapers represented at Media Days, but the cast of characters has definitely changed. More than 850 media outlets, ranging from local newspapers and radio stations to television networks and bloggers, attend this three-day feeding frenzy for interviews with coaches and players from the 12 member schools. My good friend, Charles Bloom (who currently serves as president of the PRSA Alabama Chapter), is associate commissioner for the Southeastern Conference, and he has the daunting responsibility of wrangling the media circus that follows “southern fried football” from Gainesville, Fla., to Fayetteville, Ark. Contrasted with those laid back teenage years in the Ole Miss press box, today’s media horde covers SEC football with fervor once reserved for political conventions or natural disasters.

As a public relations professional, I was impressed by the very strategic outreach to persuade citizens to respond to the 2010 Census. This year’s campaign exemplified a formula for fool-proof communications — prepare the audience, make a connection, be brief,  remind them and, if you still don’t get a response, go out and find them.

Much has been written about the extensive, integrated communications campaign built around the Census. The campaign engaged a full spectrum of tactics, including paid media, earned media, partnerships, a host of special initiatives and a persistent workforce. And yet, the Census is a case study of good old fashioned communications — getting a compelling sender to meet a receptive receiver, resulting in targeted results. 

My teaching experience goes back to the third grade — that is, when I was in the third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Draves, had to run to the principal’s office, and she put me in charge of the class.

As I read from the book Mrs. Draves left for me, I thought, “What a heavy experience this is.” And, even with the sea of faces in front of me, I immediately said to myself, “Wow, I really like this!”

For many years, though, my “sister” passion, communications, took priority. Sparked by an internship at my college’s communications office as an undergraduate, I launched a career in public relations. To me, the business offered exhilarating professional challenges, whether creating a strategic communication plan, writing copy for a brochure or supervising interns.

And yet, the bug to teach was still with me. Intrigued by the thought of combining my dual passions as a college professor of public relations, I earned a doctorate while continuing to pursue my public relations career. As assistant to the university president, Bill Greiner, I wrote his speeches and his columns in university publications, as well as supervised a staff of writers. While working with Greiner, though, I daydreamed about the professors and students we saw outside his window.

I am not a big believer in government intervention, particularly regarding how we use technology to conduct our business or personal lives. However, beginning this week, a good law to ban text messaging by drivers finally goes into effect in Georgia. If you, like me, live and work in Atlanta — one of the “worst commute cities in the U.S.” — this is welcoming news. The obvious reason, of course, is safety on the highways. But, I am also using the new law as an inspiration to cut back, unplug, enjoy the road, sing along to the radio and finally focus on taking a break from e-mail! 

I have fully embraced advances in personal technology, believing it makes me more productive, a better communicator, and available 24/7 to clients, family, friends and the like. And, as an early adopter (to use marketing parlance), it was fun while it was the new “thing.” (Granted, it was new about 15 years ago! Okay, when I embrace something, I really embrace it!) 

I find that I spend way too much time on e-mail these days —  e-mail that must be read while the coffee is brewing, e-mail that must be replied to while backing out of the driveway, e-mail that needs to be forwarded while walking to grab some lunch, e-mail that just can’t wait! Of course, I just have to e-mail during meetings.  When I get home, I sit in the car in the garage to respond to e-mail that has arrived since I left the office. Right before dinner, I do another e-mail check, then one more before going to bed. E-mail, e-mail, e-mail, all the time! Why? Is it really all that important?