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Classroom of Farmacology in Padua\u2019s University (Adobe Stock)<\/p>\nClassroom of Farmacology in Padua\u2019s University (Adobe Stock)<\/p>\n
For years, public relations students have criticized the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication for centering the PR track around journalism courses, raising concerns\u00a0about whether the curriculum truly prepares them for careers in the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PR majors\u00a0are required to\u00a0take several journalism-focused courses, including Reporting and Writing I, II and III, as well as Visual Storytelling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shayla Jones, a third-year public relations student,\u00a0said\u00a0the professors do make an effort to prepare students for professional expectations and push them to think beyond\u00a0FAMU.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like the teachers here do a very good job at preparing you for what to expect in the real world,\u201d Jones said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u00a0explains that\u00a0instructors stress\u00a0meeting\u00a0deadlines, professional writing\u00a0standards,\u00a0and audience awareness\u00a0skills that transfer into any communications roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, Jones notes that the structure of the program can create challenges for PR majors. While the required journalism courses strengthen writing skills, she argues that they do not reflect the writing styles or job responsibilities used in public relations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For other students, the curriculum feels disconnected from what PR professionals actually do.\u00a0Jha\u2019niece\u00a0Johnson, a third-year public relations major who serves as the PR chair for several campus organizations, shared that most of her skills came from independent learning rather than coursework.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we get the skills, but we don\u2019t have the actual opportunities within the curriculum,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cEverything I\u2019ve done PR has been self-taught.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson added that being required to take mostly journalism courses can leave PR students feeling overlooked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really unmotivating because that\u2019s not what I want to do,\u201d she said. \u201cWe only take classes that are really for journalism students, and we are not journalism students.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also mentioned that students would\u00a0benefit\u00a0from hearing from PR professionals who\u00a0have\u00a0graduated from the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cActually,\u00a0talking to students who graduated and are doing PR would be really helpful,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThis is what students actually need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other students describe SJGC\u2019s PR program as both helpful and limiting. Fourth-year public relations student Jasmine Petion acknowledged that the school attempts to offer real-world\u00a0applications, but still misses key technical skills\u00a0required\u00a0in the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly think they do their best at trying to prepare us for the real world,\u201d Petion said. \u201cBut there is a lack of the technical skills public relations professionals should have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She suggested the curriculum would be stronger with courses modeled after real PR roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe like a corporate PR class where we\u2019re able to deal with crisis communications issues,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Students also pointed to\u00a0a desire for more program offerings such as\u00a0more design training,\u00a0applied PR\u00a0work\u00a0and\u00a0industry-specific internships. Jones emphasized that these additions would help PR majors stay competitive in an increasingly demanding field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJobs are expecting you to know everything,\u201d she said. \u201cMaybe another graphic design class could put us at an edge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Classroom of Farmacology in Padua\u2019s University (Adobe Stock) For years, public relations students have criticized the School of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-112661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-tallahassee","9":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","10":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}