You're supposed to be tired and broke.

I had met Deanna McKinley previously but only for a few seconds. We had greeted each other at the PRSA’s Pro-Am Day last year and that’s all I remembered. Our second meeting, however, left a lasting impression on me…

To start off, Deanna is funny, lively and inspiring all at once – qualities that put our entire classroom in awe of her. I truly admire her frank and interactive nature because it turned the lecture into a two-way dialogue. I enjoyed her personal touches to the message she was conveying because it made her material more relevant to us.

However, the one key message that really resonated with me was when she reminded us, “You’re supposed to be tired and broke in college. It’s the American way.” As someone who sleeps for three to four hours a night, I basically had to stop myself from cuing the violins in the background and dancing around the room like a maniac; I felt like she almost knew my life story for that one minute.

As college students who live the “American way,” we sometimes forget to be grateful for the destitute and fatigue that surrounds us. I appreciated Deanna reminding us that sitting through four hours of extracurricular meetings every other day is a blessing, not a burden. It is a testament of one’s management and leadership skills. She also reminded us that unpaid internships are worth more in the end, because the experience and knowledge you walk away with couldn’t be purchased with that entire semester’s earnings. She reminded us that running around like headless chickens truly enhances our college experience and maximizes our potential.

Thank you, Deanna, for such an amazing presentation. Your appropriately titled lecture, “Real World PR: Things Your Teacher Never Taught You,” was intriguing, exciting and pertinent. I can only hope to walk out of here as successfully and effectively as you did.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

If you asked me that question maybe 15 years ago, I’d answer it in a different manner every weekend. I’m pretty sure that my career aspirations back then teeter-tottered between being an astronaut, a teacher, a news anchor, or an FBI agent. Thankfully, I have come a long way over the last decade and a half…


I have realized that I paid a lot more attention in classes such as Sports Marketing and Crisis Communications over classes such as Chemistry and Electrical Engineering. Thus, ideally, I would like to combine my interest in public relations with my passion for sports and make a living out of it. 


What does all of that mean? Basically, it means that I would like to be the next Paul Hicks. Hicks serves as the Executive Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for the National Football League. However, don’t write him off as just another sport executive; Hicks has a strong background in public relations, as he previously led the American operations for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.


I'm not too sure yet of how I'm going to get there. The only thing I know for a fact is that I want to go back to school in a year or two and pursue an MBA in marketing. I don't have one "do-or-die" way of achieving this career path in mind. I believe that I am one of the fortunate few who can combine my two loves through several outlets, whether it is going the agency route or an athletic league route. I feel like in today’s PR sphere, some agencies out-do several organizations’ in-house PR teams and vice-versa.