PRSSA SDSU Co-Founds SoCal PRSSA Coalition and Hosts First-Ever Conference

December 4, 2020

PRSSA SDSU is a recognized student organization that represents the School of Journalism and Media Studies at SDSU. With COVID-19 averting the organization’s ability to meet in-person through bi-weekly meetings, the club got creative to provide networking opportunities to its members.

With the help of Giselle Gallegos, President of PRSSA at CSU Fullerton, SDSU came together with CSU Long Beach, Biola University, CSU Dominguez Hills, University of Southern California, Cal Poly Pomona, CSU Los Angeles and CSU Northridge, to found the Southern California PRSSA Coalition. The nine schools making up the Coalition host monthly panels for their members, and PRSSA SDSU members have free access to the Coalition.

Gallegos says, “Reaching out and connecting with other chapters in Southern California was important to me even before virtual learning just because I hadn’t seen much camaraderie between local chapters in my two years of being a PRSSA member and wanted to change that.”

President of the SDSU chapter, Taylor Petersen says, “It was important for PRSSA SDSU to join the PRSSA Southern California Coalition because we want to offer our members as much as possible. Through the Coalition, we have been able to offer more networking opportunities and opportunities to listen and learn from different speakers.”

Recently the Coalition hosted a conference to emulate PRSSA International Conference 2020, featuring four workshops as well as breakout sessions. With 70 members pre-registered for the Oct. 23 conference and an average of 35 attendees per session, Peterson and Gallegos say the conference was a success.

Greg Block, PRSSA SDSU’s chapter professional advisor, who has worked in the office of the San Diego Mayor, Scripps Research, and at San Diego State University as the Chief Communications Officer, spoke at the “Social Media in a Global Crisis” panel.

“I think the recent conference offered more student-tailored panels and workshops to PRSSA members, as well as the opportunity to directly meet and connect with our peers in the region,” Gallegos says.

Petersen says, “I hope that future PRSSA members are able to gain as much from the Coalition as we have. We have begun planning and talking about events for next semester too.”

The Coalition is to continue post-pandemic and after its leadership has graduated. Learn more about the SoCal PRSSA Coalition on PRSSA SDSU’s Instagram page here, and PRSSA SDSU’s website here.

The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.