As one of the “guinea pigs” who stepped up to take the “new” accreditation test in 2003, I had no idea what to expect, however, I came away from the process much more focused and well-rounded and can now proudly say is an accredited public relations professional. For this blog, I want to relate my personal account of the APR journey, which proves – if I can do it, anyone can.
As chair of accreditation for the Orlando Area Chapter of FPRA, I recently conducted a survey of our members to find out how they feel about our profession’s universal credential. Overall, the results were positive – several members indicated they were considering going through the process this year. What I found most interesting, however, were the reasons given by those who were not considering accreditation this year and in one case, never. This blog provides a great opportunity for me to respond and offer my reasons why I believe there is no excuse for not pursuing accreditation.
Ethics, the word evokes a response. Positive or negative public relations professionals, indeed almost everyone, have a reaction to the word and, more importantly, everyone knows it is important. In the abstract ethics is easy – Do the Right Thing. However, in the immediacy of a crisis or the candor of a strategic planning meeting the reality of ethics and more critically ethical decisions becomes much more complex.
In the spring of 1978 I supervised the first interns in advertising and public relations from UCF. We had a total of 14 interns for the academic year. Last year I worked with a total of 160 interns in Ad/PR. Over my career I have worked with 3,317 student interns. I’d like to take this opportunity to share some of what I’ve learned about internships and hear your thoughts on this topic. I also want to acknowledge the contributions of Frank Stansberry, APR and PRSA Fellow to both our internship program and to the content of this blog post.
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