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Making a change with PR senior capstones

Photo via Scout archive

At Bradley, many programs and organizations allow seniors to show the culmination of their educational efforts here on the Hilltop in the form of a capstone.

Each year, the senior public relations and advertising majors are tasked with creating an organization to solve an issue that is prominent in the Peoria community. They work together to create a campaign for a non-profit organization or a local business, running social media pages, posters and planning events to spread the word about their campaign.

At the end of their capstone, students will have gained an understanding of how to build relationships with citizens and businesses as well as advertise to local communities.

Illinois Teacher Support

QBC PR Solutions is a group looking to draw attention to the teacher shortage in Illinois and make a local change. Composed of students Quest Dobbelaire, Bri Durham and Christiana Kolosvary, the group worked together to spread the word about the teaching opportunities available to college students.

The group designed its campaign to recruit college students into education after recognizing that the Illinois State Board of Education recently revised its requirements for substitute teachers. New guidelines state that short-term substitute teaching licenses require applicants to have 60 college credits.

For its April 12 event on campus, QBC PR Solutions brought the superintendent of the Peoria County Regional Office of Education to provide an informational seminar on substitute teaching. There was even an opportunity for students to be registered on the spot at the event.

“We wanted students to be aware of the new legislation because it’s worth mentioning,” Dobbelaire, the group’s community liaison, said. “College students probably have the most flexible schedules and are always looking for part-time employment … Our hope is that we create enough momentum where this becomes a yearly thing.”

Throughout its campaign, the group partnered with the Smith Career Center and a graphic design company called CDI which printed their marketing materials.

Join the Groovement

Lauren Bacon, Stephanie Mahrt and Kaitlin Overlin are a group of students looking to address student voter registration with their PR capstone. The group has extended their project by creating a student organization called Join the Groovement.

Join the Groovement is a non-partisan club for students interested in learning more about civic participation beyond ideological barriers.

The group is hosting their event at Olin Quad on April 23 as the Peoria County Election Commission presents its new voting system while providing the opportunity for students who are Illinois residents to register to vote or check the status of their registration.

With a passion for both student registration and music, the group also partnered with Our House Entertainment, a managing group for local Peoria artists that plans to provide five bands as entertainment during the voter registration event.

“I think this [project] has definitely prepared me and [my classmates] for becoming PR professionals and planning campaigns and going through that process,” Bacon, the group’s point of contact for campus relations, said. “All three of our group members were collectively inspired by civic engagement and music in general, and it’s very surreal that [it has all come together].”

Ending Period Stigma

Jocelyn Navarro, Caroline Carlson, Anai Salgado and Carson Pond are all working together for their senior PR capstone to end the stigma against periods and period poverty.

Period poverty is the lack of proper access to period necessities. Due to the lack of government-provided feminine products, lots of people in the country suffer from period poverty. However, new acts are being implemented to help solve the problem.

“This past January … homeless shelters and schools are supposed to start carrying [the products] now, but there’s really no stipulations as far as how much period products they are supposed to provide [and] where they can access them,” Navarro said. “It’s just a very one-sentence law that they should have them.”

The group is working hard to end the stigma by creating open conversations about periods and partnering with different organizations throughout the Peoria area such as Calvin Coolidge Middle School and Hult Center for Healthy Living. Through their partnership with Calvin Coolidge, they were able to raise 1,500 menstruation products such as tampons, pads and panty liners to donate to the school.

While working on the capstone, the group of four has one major goal: to help spread period education and awareness to young kids to end the stigma surrounding the topic itself.

“In order to reduce the stigma, we really have to make it something that’s normal, which it really is … and it should have been normal since the beginning of time,” Salgado said.

By the Minute Podcast

By the Minute Podcast, is a limited seven-episode series hosted by seniors Maggie Sullivan, Carrlee Craig and Allison Kieser and covering the topic of sex trafficking in Central Illinois.

The team hosts a limited series of podcasts on Spotify that sometimes features special guests to help the group educate businesses in the Central Illinois community on the stigma of sex trafficking.

So far on their podcast, they have spoken with the CEO of the Center for Prevention of Abuse Carol Merna, Director of Victim Services at Restoration61 Amanda Pulley and founder of Grounds of Grace Dana Pfeffer.

“We hope to get this conversation started among local businesses and have them work together with our partners to continually educate themselves, their staff and show their support for the cause,” Craig said in an email interview.

In their most recent episode, By the Minute brought a survivor of sex trafficking on to share their story of being trafficked.

On their website, they offer the opportunity to take a pre-survey about how much listeners knew about the topic of sex trafficking before listening to their podcast.

For the future, By the Minute will continue to stay up on Spotify for those to listen to past the team’s graduation. They want the podcast to educate and continue to educate businesses on sex trafficking and how to notice the red flags and prevention in the years to come.

“Our hope is that [the podcast] will be available to all who want to learn more about this awful crime and how they can help decrease the demand,” Craig said.

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