My first semester of my sophomore year I took my first
public relations class because I was deciding if to declare a minor. I loved
the class and the professor, so I decided to declare public relations as my
minor and moved on to take two more classes the second semester of my sophomore
year. Little did I know this would come to be one of the worst mistakes I’ve
ever made. I don’t mean to say I hate public relations or the classes I took
but when people told me not to take two Aggie classes at one time, I should
have listened.
I also don’t mean to say I hate Alisa Agozzino as a
professor because that’s not true. I really enjoyed my two classes with her and
she taught me a lot that I know I will use moving forward in college and in my
future careers. I always had so much fun in her classes and I made new friends
too. The two classes I took with Aggie this semester were Public Relations
Writing and Social Media Principles. Learning how to write in AP style for
public relations rather than APA was the biggest challenge I faced this
semester and the main reason I struggled with these classes. Writing
assignments in a completely different style than I’ve been taught for eight
years isn’t easy. I’ve been in my classes for 16 weeks and I just now feel I am
getting the hang of AP style writing.
Another challenge I faced was writing three blogs each week
in the social media class. I have never written a blog in my entire life and
now I had to write three a week all about different topics. Listen, I don’t
have that much to talk about or share with the world. My grades were scary for
the first few weeks when it came to my blogs, but I’ve seen a huge improvement
in them and for that I am very proud of myself.
If I could change anything about the classes I took with
Aggie it would be the books that we are quizzed over in both classes. There is
a lot of information in them and it’s hard to take notes or remember everything
I am supposed to for a short quiz. I’m not saying I want longer quizzes that
can destroy my grade, but I think narrowing down the most important information
or highlighting what is most expected to be known would have been helpful. I
think I would also want to learn more about how to correctly write in AP style
before being thrown assignments and being expected to write in a format I’m not
used to. I caught on as the assignments went by and could receive decent grades
in my classes; however, I know my grades could have and most likely would have
been better if I knew AP style writing from day one rather than four weeks in.
Now I want to talk about the biggest things taking Aggie
classes have given me. I learned new skills I will use in my life in the
future, I made some awesome friends and I got more involved in the Public
Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). I must say that even though I got
frustrated often, I learned a lot in my classes and I always enjoyed coming to
them. I felt bad missing classes so I tried to not make a habit of it or even
really do it at all. I went from being a member of PRSSA to an executive board
member. I am now one of the co-chairs for the newsletter released each semester
called PRestige. Most importantly, I met new friends, such as Erin Lane. Erin
is one of the few people who gets my weird sense of humor. We talk and laugh
every day, we complain to Aggie all the time and she has really been here for
me this past semester. Of course, I’ve gotten closer to other people and can
say I have more than one friend, but Erin is probably the person I am most
thankful I met this semester. She has such a bright and bubbly personality that
is contagious and makes me excited for classes just so we can hang out and
laugh about something that’s probably stupid to everyone else. We even made a
hashtag on twitter about our grades in attempt for extra credit; it didn’t
work. I owe a lot to her, even if she doesn’t know it, for being such a good
friend to me and supporting me in all I do.
