Reflecting on an Account Executive's First Semester of GrandPR
Going into my first GrandPR meeting, I was frankly scared out of my mind. It was not only my first year in GrandPR but I was taking on the position as an Account Executive, which is an executive board position. To be honest, the first meeting did not soothe my worries. We discussed all that would be expected of us and were introduced to our teams. I was concerned that I would not meet the expectations that were being set and would ultimately fail my team. After my first team meeting, most of my fears were put to the side. I was greeted by the most friendly, welcoming group of four people. They were all new to GrandPR as well and were willing to learn along with me.
My team members were Lauren, Trevor, Karina, and Jaclyn. Lauren was so knowledgeable about PR and helped use her amazing PR skills to get things done efficiently. Trevor was a late addition to our team, but brought an incredible energy and joy to every meeting. He was willing to take on whatever to help the team out. Karina is one of the sweetest people ever. She helped keep the team on track and was always super dependable. Jaclyn was a ray of sunshine to our team and always helped bring in new, unexpected perspectives.
After meeting our clients, I could not wait to get started on work with my incredible team. Throughout the semester, we were able to work with the Humane Society of West Michigan and the Anthropology Department at Grand Valley. Although not always the easiest experience, my team helped me work through any speed bumps to eventually create work that our client was satisfied with. We were able to conduct focus groups, send out surveys, and even create a social media strategy plan! Even through some difficulties, I was very happy with our clients’ final reactions to our work. Our client from the Humane Society of West Michigan had so many great things to say about our Snapchat strategy plan for them and said it made her want to stay on as a client for the following semester.
At our final meeting of the semester, my team won the award for closest team! It was so exciting to know that others were able to see the amazing cohesiveness of our team. Although we are sad to see a team member move onto an account executive role this semester, we are thrilled to see the great work she will do with her own team! After my first semester in GrandPR, I can say I am so happy that I took a step out of my comfort zone to join. My first semester has taught me so much about working with clients and delegating tasks to a team. I am now thrilled to be able to use my skills from GrandPR to help me excel at my internship at a Public Relations firm this semester. GrandPR has truly allowed me to further my public relations skills and I am forever grateful for that.
About Morgan Greenberg
Morgan Greenberg is a senior at GVSU majoring in advertising, public relations and communication studies. This is her first year in GrandPR. Through this experience, she hopes to further her skills in the public relations field. Morgan spent her summer interning at Rachel Dalton Communications, a PR firm in Dublin, Ireland. She currently is a Public Relations intern at Lambert, Edwards and Associates and is a Team Leader at Grand Valley’s Telephone Outreach Program. Upon graduation, she hopes to travel more and eventually work at a public relations firm.