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!