After bouncing around for a year and a half, I finally realized what I want to do with my life: PUBLIC RELATIONS! More specifically, event planning and coordination. You may be wondering why this is on the sports page. Two reasons:
1) No newspaper (real or imagined) is complete without a sports page, and
2) Sports-related event planning is the career I hope to eventually find myself in.
Striking a hard pose with a good friend and teammate of mine since high school
I’ve already begun the journey toward my goal in many ways. To start, I was actually originally brought to Elon University on a football scholarship. That only lasted two seasons as I’m sure you can understand why it didn’t quite work out for a 5’10″, 195-lb middle linebacker to play at a division-I school. I thank my lucky stars every day, though, to have been given such a great opportunity because without football, I wouldn’t have stumbled across Elon’s School of Communications! Funny how things work out sometimes…
I didn’t exit the student-athlete world completely after leaving football. I wanted to find a way to link my newfound interest in public relations and event planning with the athletic department at Elon University. And so, “Day with the Phoenix” was born!
“Day with the Phoenix,” in short, is a community outreach organization which invites underpriviledged youth organizations to come meet Elon student-athletes on a personal level. By planning the event around a practice or game, the kids are able to come spend some valuable time with some of the hardest-working people on Elon’s campus.
The goal? To get these kids to realize that they should never let anything stop them from chasing after their own goals. Even you would likely be astounded to know how many different kinds of scholarships are out there these days. The kids are shown that there is simply no excuse not to go to college (especially financial insecurity) if they really want to.
The organization is entering it’s third year now, and has grown from a staff of…well, me, to a dedicated group of four and will hopefully remain long after I am graduated. You can find photo albums and descriptions of each event we’ve hosted so far on our web site, www.phoenixphanatics.com/kids.
My experience in starting and running this organization only solidified a strong passion within me to continue this kind of work. There are plenty of professional venues to do this and I hope to find myself able to call myself a part of one soon.
Had to snag a picture with the 2008/2009 PRSSA national president and my VP for Elon's chapter
In the meantime, I will continue pressing toward graduation while getting as much experience in public relations and planning events as possible. Being the president of Elon’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) is yet another opportunity to plan major events like fundraisers and professional conference activities, all while keeping “Day with the Phoenix” growing.
And finally, what kind of sports fan would I be if I didn’t at least give a tribute or two to some of my favorite players? Although I don’t play anymore, I’ve still got the linebacker blood in me and will always hate (but respect) good runningbacks like the great Walter Payton. And I wouldn’t be a true linebacker if I didn’t give it up for Ed Reed and Ray Lewis!
