{"id":6833,"date":"2016-03-03T17:53:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T22:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/?p=6833"},"modified":"2018-08-09T16:34:54","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T20:34:54","slug":"how-prssa-helped-me-realize-im-ready-to-graduate-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/2016\/03\/03\/how-prssa-helped-me-realize-im-ready-to-graduate-college\/","title":{"rendered":"How PRSSA Helped Me Realize I\u2019m Ready to Graduate College"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Courtesy<\/a>
Courtesy of Creative Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was the beginning of my senior year, a time everyone told me was supposed to be full of excitement, but I was terrified. As a student who has spent more than the normal four years in college, I was stuck on the fact that my college career was coming to an end.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were always questions floating through my head: <\/span>What will I do after graduation? Is my resume good enough? Which opportunity should I pursue? <\/span><\/i>I continued thinking about this as I left for the PRSSA 2015 National Conference. Attending National Conference was an unforgettable experience. I made new friends, got a taste of the PRSA International Conference, sharpened my skills and had the opportunity to be mentored by a PRSA Fellow. It was through each of those experiences that I learned a lesson that I wasn\u2019t expecting: <\/span>the realization that I\u2019m ready to graduate college<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t happen all at once, or even while I was in Atlanta, the Conference host city. After I came home, as I told friends, family and peers about the Conference, I noticed I was more confident when I spoke about my future career. For me, it came down to two major Conference takeaways.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, I noticed while attending sessions that I knew the theories that speakers would refer to, or had practiced the skills they mentioned. I learned a lot from the professionals I listened to, but discovering <\/span>that I have a base of public relations knowledge<\/b> was incredibly eye opening for me. At this point in my education, there isn\u2019t much more my university can offer me at the undergraduate level.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other \u201caha-moment\u201d for me was while attending the PRSA General Sessions. I saw first-hand that <\/span>learning never truly stops in public relations<\/b>. Seeing the multitude of professionals attending sessions, looking to sharpen their skills\u2014just like I was\u2014made this lesson truly visible to me. There is no way I can know everything before starting my first job, but as long as I\u2019m always willing to learn new skills, that\u2019s okay. <\/span><\/p>\n

Equipped with this newfound confidence in my capabilities, I have begun to actually enjoy my senior year. I can rest easy with the knowledge that I have been well prepared, both by my university and PRSSA, and when I have questions, I have a network that is ready to answer them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, whenever someone says that I should be excited to graduate, I can honestly agree with them. I may miss college, and hope to further my education one day. But for now, I look forward to jumping into the real world as a young professional.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Carly Owens is a senior at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, studying communication with an emphasis in public relations. She loves the art of storytelling and looks forward to a career based around that. Connect with her on<\/span><\/i> LinkedIn<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>or follow her on Twitter <\/span><\/i>@magicalcarly<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the beginning of my senior year, a time everyone told me was supposed to be full of excitement, but I was terrified. As a student who has spent more than the normal four years in college, I was stuck on the fact that my college career was coming to an end. There were always questions floating through my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2892,1555],"tags":[1569,1554,662,1649,15],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6833"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6835,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6833\/revisions\/6835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}