Beyond Graduation: Launch Your Career With PRSA
To all the graduating students out there …
Congratulations on your graduation! Starting your career is an exciting and nerve-wracking time, and PRSA is here to help you transition from student to professional. You are the future of our profession!
Your first step toward professional success is to join PRSA’s vibrant community – it’s the world’s largest organization for communications professionals. By getting involved with PRSA, you’ll benefit in many ways.
Why transition to PRSA?
Simply speaking, by joining PRSA, you’ll continue growing your skill set, which will help you stay relevant and be competitive in the job market. PRSA offers a variety of free and discounted publications, webinars, workshops, conferences and on-demand training to provide you with ongoing professional development opportunities.
You’ll also build your network through access to the members-only MyPRSA community, where you can ask questions, get feedback and connect with more than 21,000 communications professionals. And whether you stay where you are or move to a new city or state, you’ll build a local community of mentors, colleagues and friends through your nearest PRSA Chapter.
PRSA also provides you with numerous volunteer and leadership opportunities at the local, regional and national level. It’s never too early to join a committee!
What are the membership options?
As a PRSSA member, you can join PRSA National for just $60 the first year – a savings of $200. Also, PRSA waives your $65 initiation fee!
There are several tiered, discounted Associate Member categories too join PRSA National and continue your membership based on your situation:
- Associate Member, PRSSA Graduate– Former PRSSA members who graduated within the past two years. Annual dues: $60.
- Associate Member, Graduate Student– Full-time graduate students working toward a PR degree. Annual dues: $60.
- Associate Member 1– New professionals with less than one year of experience. Annual dues: $115.
- Associate Member 2– New professionals with one to two years of experience. Annual dues: $155.
- Associate Member 3– New professionals with two to three years of experience. Annual dues: $200.
In addition to your PRSA National membership, you have more membership options:
- Local PRSA Chapter Membership– Many PRSA Chapters offer you discounted membership dues as well. You can join a Chapter when you join PRSA National, or you can wait until you know where you’ll be living and working.
- New Professionals Section Membership– The national New Professionals Section is a subgroup of PRSA for members who are new to the profession. Annual dues are only $20, but you can join for free with promo code AM18. PRSA New Pros offers newsletters, a blog, Twitter chats, webinars and in-person events. Many PRSA Chapters have active local New Professionals groups that you can join for no additional cost. These groups offer both professional development and networking events.
- Other Professional Interest Sections Membership – By joining a PRSA Section for a nominal fee of $60, you get access to webinars, newsletters, conferences and networking specific to certain industries. For example, I’m a member of the Corporate Communications Section, Employee Communications Section and the PRSA Health Academy.
How to join PRSA?
- Simply fill out the online PRSA membership application. You can also access the application PDF.
- Ask a family member or loved one for PRSA membership as a graduation gift!
Invest in your career with a PRSA membership – you won’t regret it!
(Note: A version of this post originally was published on the PRSA Hoosier chapter website.)
________
Sonja Popp-Stahly, APR, Fellow PRSA, is Chair of the PRSA National Membership Committee and Professional Adviser to the Purdue University PRSSA Chapter. A former PRSSA National Professional Adviser and PRSA Hoosier Chapter President, she has also served on the PRSA National Board of Directors. As a student, she served on the PRSSA National Committee. A PRSSA National Hall of Fame inductee, Sonja works in Global Communications at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis.
