"My job is all about being a good corporate citizen, fostering relationships, and good will," a speaker said during a PRSSA meeting on Wednesday night.
Kaitlin Tenery, community relations specialist for Cobb Electric Membership Corporation, informed a large crowd of students what the definition of community relations really means.
Cobb EMC, a not-for-profit electric energy company located in Cobb County, Ga., is affiliated with Cobb Energy. Cobb EMC is the parent company for Cobb Energy.
Immediately from the start in 1938, Cobb EMC practiced a culture of community service and involvement. The company continues to do so through civic organizations, charitable communications, and partnerships with local education.
"Cobb County is a great county for education. That is why our company focuses on education so much," said Tenery.
The employees of Cobb EMC partner with local schools and provide internship opportunities for high school students. A local Cobb County student from any grade can apply for the internship in the public relations department.
In addition to internships, Cobb EMC provides mini grants to the schools to aid in the education of children. Recently, a teacher at a Cobb County elementary school realized that although students loved to read, many of them could not afford to buy books. Cobb EMC provided $1,000 to the school, enough money to provide one book per student.
Students can participate in the mentoring program that Cobb EMC has to offer. The program matches the student with a Cobb EMC employee who provides encouragement for the child's future. "None of the that were involved in the program were written up at school. A lot of these kids had problems previously and the program taught them better behavior," said Tenery.
A great opportunity for children is career day at Cobb EMC. The program has been held for 17 years and allows 50 fourth-grade and fifth-grade students to work at the company for a day. The audience smiled and laughed as Tenery showed pictures of the students in suits and neckties. Other programs Cobb EMC offers include art contests, partner reading days, and school career days.
"You never know what kind of impact you can have on these kids. This position has made me realize that I love event planning and I love helping people," Tenery said.
Tenery offered advice to any students interested in a position of community relations. According to Tenery, a community relations specialist must be a good people-person, have excellent verbal communication, and have the ability to multi-task. She emphasized that networking is the most important preparation.
"Networking sounds artificial but it does not have to be. You can build this in a natural way by networking with your family, friends, and teachers. Take every opportunity you can and continue refining your passions."
At the end of the speech students eagerly asked questions, proving their interest and appreciation in the speech.
After concluding questions were answered, Tenery opened a giveaway bag and gave every student a raffle ticket. The audience smiled with anticipation when she said, "I brought a gift because my boss believes very strongly in giving gifts. It shows the good will that Cobb EMC practices every day."
2 comments:
Sorry this posted picture messed up the text... it did not look like this on the preview!
Emily,
I appreciate the effort to include a photo but that's kind of a weak pic. I'm no PJ, but you want the speaker, not the back of a girl's head. Don't be afraid to move from your seat and get up close to the podium to get the shot ya need! But again, you get brownie points for the attempt and certainly aren't penalized for photo skills. Now, onto the story.
A few comments. I like the delayed lead, but in general might be better to avoid opening with a quote. You did a nice job of getting good, long quotes that gave insight into the speaker. I liked the ending about the gift-bag and how that tied into the beginning and overall message.
Your lead could have piggybacked off this gift bag/goodwill thing.
A few other notes, areas you could improve upon:
*Be specific. What's a "large crowd"? Is that 15 students? 500 students? The reader has no idea how many ppl attended the event because of the vagueness of such a term. So be specific.
*A sentence explaining what PRSSA is would be helpful to the reader to put in context who the sponsoring organization is and why the speaker is speaking. This is a very specific audience she's talking to, not a general audience.
*Reaction: Just as I've mentioned with the other students, talk to people in attendance and get reaction. Include quotes from people other than the speaker, to make the story more balanced and put in context.
Good work!
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