Who We Are

PRLab is the nation’s longest-operating student-run public relations agency. Founded in 1978, the award-winning agency provides Boston University graduate and undergraduate students with a hands-on public relations experience that empowers them to push boundaries and produce results for brands and clients nationwide. PRLab boasts a robust history of over four decades of student-led ingenuity and innovation in the public relations profession.

PRLab is staffed by junior, senior, and graduate-level Boston University public relations and communications students. PRLab’s internal structure enhances students’ knowledge of agency life and the public relations profession. To that end, students form account teams complete with a director, an account supervisor, and two to four account executives.

Directors oversee the strategic direction of three to five accounts. Account supervisors serve as liaisons between clients and account executives, leveraging their project management skills to ensure productivity and quality control for one to two accounts. Finally, account executives work directly with their assigned client to fulfill their business objectives, organizational goals, and public relations needs.  

Students enroll in PRLab for either two or four-credits and work with their assigned clients for seven or 12 hours each week, respectively. Account executives record their “billable” hours each week to their account supervisors in keeping with a traditional public relations agency. By the end of the semester, account executives will have conceptualized, crafted, and implemented a strategic public relations plan and developed a professional portfolio that showcases the work produced inside and outside of PRLab.

Interested in learning more about PRLab and its organizational history?

Take a listen to this podcast featuring one of PRLab’s faculty board of directors, Professor Amy Shanler. Also, check out this PRWeek article penned by PRLab’s faculty board of directors, Professors Amy Shanler and Justin Joseph.