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Photo by Nick Demille

Amy Bishop, left, and Kristina Hunter display the awards they and the IU chapter of PRSSA won for their work last year.

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The IU chapter of the Public Relations Study Society of America won two national awards and senior Amy Bishop received individual honors at the group’s national conference Oct. 15-18 in Orlando.

IU won the Star Chapter Award, which encourages chapter leadership to provide programming and relationship-building opportunities for students, and rewards them for achieving these goals.

The chapter also won a Dr. F. H. Teahan Chapter Award for Outstanding Regional Activity for its conference this spring, "Get Social: A Blueprint for Social Media Strategy." The regional PRSSA meeting, the first at IU, drew more than 200 people for several workshops, led by experienced professionals, to talk about best ways to use social media in work and as professional tools.

"It means a lot for our chapter to be recognized nationally," said Kristin Hunter, BAJ'11, a three-year PRSSA member who led the group last year, the period for which it was awarded these prizes. She now is a master's degree candidate at IU's Health and Physical Education's Health Promotions program.

"We have a lot to build on and a lot to improve, but being recognized for our achievements this far is wonderful," she added. "Our chapter members put a lot of effort into this organization and being recognized for these efforts is awesome."

Individual honors went to journalism senior Amy Bishop, who received two scholarships: the Betsy Plank/PRSSA Scholarship and the Stephen Pisinski Memorial Scholarship. She also received recognition for her role as a chapter and national leader in PRSSA as a recipient of a National Gold Key, which recognizes students who display outstanding academic excellence in public relations and leadership, and she is a recipient of a National President's Citation. This year, Bishop also is editor-in-chief of Forum, the organization’s national magazine.

Courtesy photo

From left, Amy Bishop, Carly Garber and Michael Conley attended the PRSSA conference, where Bishop and the IU chapter received several honors.

"This organization has done more for me than I could ever expect, and I owe my professional success to PRSSA," Bishop said. "Because of this, I am now a leader in the organization and use my time to give back to the profession and the continued education of public relations students."

The conference is in conjunction with the professionals’ group, Public Relations Society of America, and both groups attend some of the same functions. Student workshops were led by public relations professionals on topics such as nonprofit, healthcare, sports and fashion communications, as well as sessions on chapter programming and career development.

Chapter members also attended the conference and report on their experiences on the Blogs page. They were joined by a group from the School of Journalism at IUPUI and other public relations students from around the nation.

More:

• Read student reports from the conference.

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