Class of 2020 Broom Student Fellows

We notice our PR people out there grinding, working day and night to create something big for themselves. We found four in the class of 2020 at San Diego State University to champion as they jump into their careers.

Chelsea Heath, Alexis Hopper, Mariah Hugo and McKenna Wecker make up the first class of Broom Student Fellows.

The Broom Student Fellows program sprung from a conversation I had with Dr. Glen Broom this summer. When I met with him in July, we talked about the internship course he taught at what is now SDSU’s School of Journalism & Media Studies. My initial plans to recreate a version of that for the Broom Center were tempered when we unexpectedly lost our center’s namesake in later in the summer, and so the Broom Student Fellows program emerged in its place. Under the Broom Initiative, students applied for competitive selection to become a fellow.

The program will fully take shape when the fellows themselves shape it. This is their program, intended to invest in the fellows, by opening doors and giving a boost as they start their careers. My best description of the Broom Student Fellows has been to call it part agency tour, part networking and creating an audience with PR thought leaders, part PR make-a-wish professional experiences, part book club and part finishing school.

• Working with ADK Strategies, Anna Dearmon Kornick will lead the fellows through a tailored group executive coaching program. Over the course of 12 weeks, Anna will help the fellows with career goal setting and time management strategies.
  
  
• Making the most of our PR community, we will attend events throughout the Public Relations Society of America’s Western District. This month we will attend Quality Time with PR Minds. This annual event from the PRSA San Diego/Imperial Counties chapter focuses on nonprofits.
  
  
• Jetting off to Seattle to check out the offices of Allison+Partners, the fellows will have an opportunity to expand their horizons beyond American’s finest city and see other hot PR markets they could call home after graduation. Funding from Scott Allison makes this trip and other aspects of the professional development for the Broom Student Fellows possible.
  
  
• Hitting the road for LA, we’ll board a bus later this spring for the Pansky PR Professionals Tour. This 3P Tour is sponsored by JMS alumnus Scott Pansky this spring as a part of the Broom Initiative.

The women selected for the first-ever Broom Student Fellows class were always going somewhere, but now they will be powered by Broom Initiative in that journey.

Support the professional development of the Broom Student Fellows and more students who benefit from Broom Initiative projects by donating to the Broom Center today.