{"id":31868,"date":"2021-11-12T16:10:18","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T21:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=31868"},"modified":"2021-11-29T16:45:41","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T21:45:41","slug":"all-nighter-provides-pr-for-local-nonprofits","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/all-nighter-provides-pr-for-local-nonprofits\/","title":{"rendered":"All-nighter provides PR for local nonprofits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Armed with nothing but pizza and positive thinking, almost 90 Boston University students gathered last week at the College of Communication (COM) to face a daunting task: develop a public relations project for one of the area\u2019s nonprofit organizations in 12 hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was surprised how much we could get done,\u201d said Nicole Yang, a graduate student in the Emerging Media Studies program. Yang helped conduct research for Silver Lining Mentoring, an organization that helps young people in foster care develop strong advising relationships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRoBono, as the all-nighter is known, is the work of BU\u2019s student-run public relations agency, PRLab<\/a>, which has hosted the event since 2013. Although many participants are from the public relations program, it is open to BU students across campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of the night, students are divided into teams and assigned a client, who comes with a project for them to complete. Types of work have included: creating a social media content calendar, developing a strategy for sponsored posts, writing media pitches, blogs, and even putting together holiday cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the morning, public relations professionals arrived to help teams polish their work before they presented the finished product to their client at 9 a.m. \u201cThe Silver Linings representative was very happy,\u201d Yang added. \u201cShe kept saying she was going to cry and felt overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lots of classes are theoretical, so it\u2019s good to do actual work as opposed to a mock press release that nobody will see.<\/p>Seth Delise<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Silver Lining Mentoring, other clients included pet adoption service Humane Society for Greater Nashua; Bunker Labs, an organization that supports veterans; Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly; and Women\u2019s Lunch Place, a shelter for women in crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For junior Lucy Gilbert, a transfer student in the PR program, the excitement of PRoBono was a major draw to BU. \u201cI saw a video of this online while looking at the school, and it looked like a great way to gain actual experience,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople really cared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amy Shanler<\/a>, associate professor of the practice of public relations and co-director\/faculty advisor of PRLab, said that students, collectively, donated 1,350 hours of time. If those hours were billed at a commercial rate, it would be worth more than $135,000 worth of services, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Area businesses Insomnia Cookies, Ben & Jerry\u2019s, and Raising Cane\u2019s Chicken Fingers also pitched in by donating food. \u201cThis shows what great neighbors BU has and is cultivating,\u201d Shanler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students cited the opportunity to apply their skills to a real-world setting as a reason for participating in the event. \u201cLots of classes are theoretical, so it\u2019s good to do actual work as opposed to a mock press release that nobody will see,\u201d said junior Seth Delise, a PR and political science major. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shanler said PRLab tried to host another PRoBono in the spring, but it just couldn\u2019t match the energy of the fall with the holidays and the giving season around the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so inspiring to at first see students at the beginning of the night who don\u2019t really know what they\u2019re about to get into, and then to see them again in the morning,\u201d Shanler said. \u201cYes, they\u2019re exhausted but they\u2019re also confident. It\u2019s one of my highlights of the year to see this whole transition happen and the incredible work the students put together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Long Night of Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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    Armed with nothing but pizza and positive thinking, almost 90 Boston University students gathered last week at the College of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19704,"featured_media":31870,"template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[798,1406,19],"bu-publication":[1472],"discipline-type":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/31868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19704"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/31868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31890,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/31868\/revisions\/31890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31868"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=31868"},{"taxonomy":"discipline-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discipline-type?post=31868"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=31868"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=31868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}