My showcase is finally tomorrow! I can not wait to show off the hard work I have put towards this project so far. I hope people get as into my presentation as I have but on to what happened last week…

Last week I had to present my research presentation. This was where I spoke on my interviews and what I learned from each of them as well as the assessments I have completed so far. This presentation had to be around 10 to 12 minutes, a time frame I thought I might have a difficult time achieving but thankfully did not. I finished at just a little under 12 minutes because once I started the words just started to flow! Presenting last week in the time length I did gave myself a huge confidence boost for when it comes to the final one in May. The fink one is around 45 minutes long and will include the speech I just gave last week. I will also have done a few other speeches before the final that will also be added. I hope the presentations, especially the showcase tomorrow, go as well as last weeks!

Hi! I am happy to be back and posting after a short absence due to Thanksgiving break. This past week was all about making sure I am set and ready to go for our showcase sowing up next week! I put my board together and decided on my props I will also have being displayed. I am very pleased with how it turned out and hope the guest who pass by and read a little of it are as well. On the board there are multiple pieces to touch on. The left side is kinda the basic, I have my topic proposal, the quote I have picked for this year as well as my mission statement. Over on the right side I did something a little different and wrote one interesting point I received from each of my interviews this past semester. Lastly, in the center I have a brief spotlight on my mentor and a description of his actual job. The props I decided on bring is first off a football bringing in that sports theme to my display. I will also have my laptop sitting out playing highlights I have found on the Big 12 conference website. I hope everyone who comes can take home something from my presentation. 

What a relief this past week has been! I now have a mentor which is very exciting and I am also now working on my mid-year presentation. At the presentation I will be showing off what I have accomplished so far in my study as well as what is to come. I am very eager for everyone to see my progress. Not only will I be showing off my work but so will my class mates and the other Frisco I.S.D. ISM students. I am curious in seeing if anyone has the same topic of study as myself. 

But like I said I have found a mentor! I am thrilled to start working with him and learning more about the sports field in way not many others do. I am looking forward to meeting even more professionals in the sports PR world as well.

Opps! I’m a day late so instead of Monday I am writing to you on a Tuesday. This actually works out because today was a busy day unlike this past week. Today I was able to visit the UNT campus and sit in on a couple of classes. This was very interesting and cool because these were both classes I will possibly be interested in taking next fall while I am at OU. My first class was a PR Writing class and probably my favorite. I enjoyed it so much because they were working on press releases. I have heard so much about press releases from my interviews but was never able to actually see one or learn about it. The professor walked me through how the students have been working on them as well as their upcoming final exam. 

This past week though was not super busy for me. I sent out a couple of emails that I am oping to hear back soon from but other than that it was the end of the grading period so I just had to make sure I had everything turned in. This week though I have a good amount that needs to be accomplished such as an interview assessment and a list of guest I am inviting to the showcase in December… Wish me luck!

This past week I was blessed with the chance to interview three more professionals. I had been put in contact with a gentlemen who I was planning to interview and he decided to organize a meeting with two other people in his office. They all three had had great answers to my questions and I look forward to hopefully speaking with them more in the future. 

This week I will be asking one of the professionals I have interviewed to be my mentor. The decision was honestly quite hard to make. I spoke to so many helpful people who were all willing to help in any way they could. I will be relieved though when I am finally meeting with my mentor weekly. The whole interviewing process has been fun and very educational but to be able to really dive into one company and focusing my energy on them is what I have been looking forward to this whole year. 

Something I recently noticed was my original contact list I developed around the third week of school. In all reality I have not actually been in contact with any of the 13 professionals who I found on my own but two. The two that I have made contact ended up leading me to my other 6 interviews and I could not be more thankful for their help! 

This past week was not too busy for me. I mainly focused on getting emails out to a couple more professionals I was put in contact with. I was able to set up another interview with a gentlemen for today and I am greatly looking forward to what he has to say. This one is going to be a little bit different due to him not working directly with a university. This interview will most likely be one of my last before I pick my mentor. I have been thrilled with the professionals I have spoken to and definitely believe I can decide on a great mentor from my list of contacts.  

The mentor process is making me very excited to experience but also kind of nervous. Mainly nervous with the thought of how I am going to ask and their response. There is always that thought of being turned down but if that does happen I know then that is what’s suppose to happen and I will come across someone who will work great with me. I’m excited for starting the mentorship because I will have the opportunity to dive in deeper than just what my interviews have provided me with. 

I have completed my mandatory five interviews! I could not be more excited for accomplishing all I have and the best part is I still have more interviews to conduct. Crazy how just a couple weeks ago I was praying for a break through and I have received just that and more. Since my last post I have been able to speak with a gentlemen form the Baylor athletic department as well as someone from, my future school, the University of Oklahoma. Both these interviews were very helpful in the sense they both offered different answers to my questions than my previous interviews. Something I am noticing is that all of the professionals I have spoken to are not some new bees in their field they have worked very hard and held their positions for quit some time. By them being at their individuals schools for so long it lets me know I am truly talking to the best in the business. They are able to keep up with changing times and know how to execute their duties so they might target multiple age groups. I do hope now that I am able to keep up with the professionals I interview for future reference even if they are not my mentor for the remainder of the year.

Last week I was honored with the opportunity to head over to Denton and visit the UNT Athletic Department. There I got to meet and interview with the Mean Green Athletic Director. He specifically works with football but over sees all sports as well. The interview was great with a lot of awesome information provided to me. Luckily I have slowly been getting better at my interviewing skills an was able to ask questions that were not even on my list of pre-written questions but were based of his previous comments. I was also able to speak with the programs two interns at the moment. I loved hearing their take on on where they are at in their professional life right now and how they did not expect to be where they are but know the hard work will pay off. He was extremely helpful with future contacts and also made me very comfortable and wanting to come back and learn more about the UNT Athletic program. 

This week I am hoping to reach out to even a few more professionals and maybe even complete my mandatory 5 interviews. Although I have to speak with at least 5 professionals there is no way I would turn down the chance to even talk to 5 more. The more knowledge and grasp on the sports PR work, the better!

My prayers have been answered! In my last post I was talking about how I have been kind of struggling setting up interviews and people not being able to get back to me due to their busy schedules. I decided to send out another round of emails this time reaching out to contacts I was able to get from my first and last two interviews. I was fortunate enough to immediately hear back from one of them and they seemed very enthusiastic on meeting with me and sharing their experiences. I am so thrilled by just the little growth I have made.

I also got in contact with the professionals I met at the Business Symposium who crazily enough knew folks in the sports PR world too. I am looking forward to seeing where those take me these next couple of weeks. 

I am excited to further my interview skills this week when meeting with the gentlemen I get to talk to and hear his experience with this career field. So far everyone has had a different thing they have liked most about their job and easily enough they have also had one common thing they struggle with the most. It will be interesting in seeing if this pattern continues. Can not wait to blog next week on my progress!

This past week was pretty slow for me in terms of progress. I followed up with a couple people who I have been exchanging emails with in hopes of booking more interviews. Unfortunately at this time they are busy but I know my big break is coming and I will be flooded with interview opportunities soon.

Tuesday Coach Goff prepared the class on a large event we had on Friday called The Business Symposium. During this event myself along with the other ISM students on the west side of Frisco had the chance to interview adults, mainly parents, with large careers. The professionals may have not been in the line of work I am studying but it was extremely helpful practicing our interview skills on them. They were also able to provide me with contacts of their friends who are in the the sports PR world that I can connect too. 

I’m very committed to studying sports PR but I will not lie when I say hearing about the adults professions who were there was very cool. They had some jobs that I did not know even existed and others that I thought I would never have the opportunity to get a real inside look on. I am very grateful for Friday and the extra experience I gained. 

Last week might have been a short feeling week but boy did I get a lot out of it! I was able to hold two interviews with two professionals who are some of the best of what they do. The information I was able to receive from these two conversations was extremely helpful and eye opening. I was able to learn things I would had no clue occur in sports PR. The two professionals both had similar answers though. They both stressed that they have FULL time jobs. During their sports seasons they are busy seven days a week. Finding that perfect balance does take a little time but is crucial that people going into the PR field find it or you can be driven crazy. Although the job can be more time consuming then others it can also be more rewarding than others. A joy both of the professionals had was seeing the players they get to work with work and dedication pay off weather that be a pre season win or a national championship. I am very honored for the time they both took out of their days and hope to continue to have the opportunity to speak with many more people in their same career field. 

Well, the ball sure does seem to be or feel to be rolling! This past week I contacted multiple people, from the contact list I gathered, asking for interviews. I was nervous sending my first couple emails not sure what I was going to receive back as answers or if I was even going to get answers back. Not many people have the time or patience to meet with a high school student they have never met. Fortunately I received very enthusiastic emails back from most the people I reached out to. I now have two informational interviews set up for the end of this week and could not be more thrilled. I have my questions set and outfit picked out ready to go! Not only do I have interviews but they are both with some great people in the PR world! This week I am hoping to secure even more interviews so I am able to get as much information and learn more about the sports PR field. Another thing I hope to get out of the interviews are possibly more contacts that I was not able to find myself searching the internet. Excited to share my experiences over this coming week with ya’ll soon! 

Contacts. Contacts. Contacts. That is all I have been able to think about this past week. At first I was honestly freaked out with the thought of getting 25 contacts to reach out to, for possible interviews. It put being in ISM even more in reality. I thought I could go into this process, find all these top dogs in the professional sports field here in DFW and everything was going to go smoothly. It is still going smoothly but in just a slightly different direction I had anticipated. I found it a little more difficult to find the direct contact information about the professional teams around here and in general. Organizations don’t just put that information out an in the open like they might for ticket or merchandise purchasing. while searching the web for them though I did come across sports agencies. These sports agencies specialize in public relations and although they might not represents teams they do represent the players on these teams and know tons of other DFW PR members. My new game plan is to interview and get in touch with the agencies in hopes to either grow contacts through them or even find out that working in an agency is what I want to do instead. The agencies still allow me to do the same line of work I was hoping to with exploration into PR outside of the sports field providing even more experience. 

Hi and welcome to my blog! Two weeks ago I started on my ISM journey and could not be more excited. I know this class and  process is going to be very helpful for my future and I am looking forward to really diving into the sports public relations field. Every week I will be posting a different blog post talking about the previous week I had in ISM. You will learn about different assignments I am working on as well as my view on interviews I will be conducting with professionals in my field of interest. 

The first week of ISM we started at the basics, introducing our selves to one anthers and learning about what each other will be researching this year. We also began our first assessments and built our blogs, two things we will create and use each week in ISM. 

Last week, week two, we went over professional dressing and what we should and should not wear or look like went interacting with professionals and possibly future mentors. What I thought was most interesting is that it only takes 30 seconds to make a first impression and over 20 visits with that same person to make a bad impression turn into a good one. I am not going to have even close to 20 visits with most the people I interview and meet so those first 30 seconds are a make or break.

I can not wait to learn more and tackle this experience head on. My year in ISM I know will be one I will cherish.