Donald Argoe, Staff 

After two years, La Salle University’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) is back up and running.

 Like manyany sports and clubs, PRSSA was negatively affected by COVID-19. Starting with a year of online school and another year of safety restrictions, there weren’t enough students to get the club going. On Sept. 22, the group met for the second time to select the new board members best fit to help rebuild.  

         After a long break, the communication students of La Salle are getting back together with hopes to rebuild the chapter back to what it used to be, giving students even more opportunities to succeed. PRSSA Vice President Madeline Geyer said, “COVID-19 took away the opportunity to really congregate as a team last year, it was also difficult to spark student interest.” Then the first year back on campus, students found that they “couldn’t really establish [themselves] in such limiting circumstances,” Geyer said.

         Before the pandemic hit in 2020, Geyer said “Previous La Salle PRSSA chapters were highly successful and feigned a lot of interest with students and took on nationals multiple times, we hope to be just like that.”

         PRSSA, established by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), is a society of over 9,000 college students nationwide who are provided with professional development opportunities to help them in their career path. PRSSA is  designed to help communication students connect with others in their field of interest for a wide variety of learning and career opportunities.

         The group is working hard to become a well-established chapter once again in the national organization. Geyer said that they’re excited to welcome their new Chapter Advisor, former PRSSA President Ryan Wall. With his help Geyer said they “plan on getting involved with lots of off-campus events to help students gain as much experience as possible.”

         Now that the plan is in motion, PRSSA Director of Publicity Keri Marable said she plans to expand the club by “reestablishing ourselves as an official chapter in good standing with PRSA to take part in their various awards and competitions by gaining new members, building a repertoire of chapter newsletters and social media campaigns, and creating new programming on and off campus.”

         Geyer said the group “plans on recruiting new members through word of mouth, and visual flyers from our Director of Publicity.”

         The club’s main student goals are to enhance education on the subject of public relations, expand networks with like-minded professionals, and develop skills to help students become a leader in the field of public relations or communication. In other words, PRSSA’s focus is to help communication majors learn, connect and grow.

         Along with knowledge and connections, PRSSA offers students desired benefits like scholarships, access to internships, becoming a leader, planning events and meetings, and  finding jobs after graduation.

         Now that COVID-19 restrictions are easing up, Geyer and Marable agree that the PRSSA chapter is ready to start recruiting even more new members from the communication department and rebuild its reputation in the world of public relations.