PRSSA President, Kelly Newburg

Name: Kelly Newburg
Year: Senior
Major/Minors: Public Relations; Minors: Business and the Liberal Arts, Engineering Leadership Development 
Hometown: State College, PA

HC: What organizations are you involved with on campus?

Kelly: I serve as the 2012-2013 Public Relations Students Society of America (PRSSA) president. PRSSA is the largest pre-professional society in the country and is an excellent opportunity to excel in the public relations field while making connections with PR students and professionals across the country. 

I also serve as the director of business affairs for Happy Valley Communications (HVC), a student-run communications firm. As director of business affairs, I am in charge of maintaining our ASA account, booking firm visits and developing a sponsorship package to garner donations for the firm. 
     
In addition, I am the founder and president of charity: water Penn State, an organization dedicated to making an impact on the global water crisis. As an organization, we work to generate awareness and funds to help solve the water crisis which effects 800 million people each day. 
     
Lastly, I serve as the director of public relations for the Penn State TOMS Shoes Campus Club. My position includes media outreach, social media and developing creative materials to promote TOMS Shoes and the One for One movement. 

HC: How do you manage your time?

Kelly: It took me several years of full course loads, internships and clubs and organizations to final get time management down! I write everything down in my planner to ensure I make it to all of meetings, complete all of my assignments and send out all of my emails. I also do my best to keep a similar schedule week to week, which makes remembering where I need to be much easier. Being organized is one of the easiest ways to manage my time!

HC: Can you give us a typical day in your shoes as president of two organizations?

Kelly: On a typical day, I always put my classes first. While my leadership positions are extremely important to me and hold a high level of priority, I make sure to constantly remind myself I wouldn’t have any of my opportunities if I wasn’t a Penn State student. My responsibilities for PRSSA and charity: water on a day-to-day basis usually include sending and responding to a lot of emails as well as meeting with a lot of people. A large responsibility in any leadership position is simply overseeing the organization to ensure everything is running smoothly. Luckily for me, I have incredible people working alongside me with PRSSA and charity: water that help make my role a lot easier. I appreciate everything everyone in both organizations does to help make PRSSA and charity: water so successful. 

HC: What are your post-graduation plans?

Kelly: I’m looking into working at a variety of non-profit organizations as well as businesses that have a social message and mission. After living in Pennsylvania my entire life, I’m looking to relocate to somewhere completely different, most likely the west coast. My career is very important to me, but at the end of the day, happiness is the most important thing to me post-graduation! 

HC: What is the best piece of advice you could give to underclassmen looking to get involved in leadership roles?

Kelly: Don’t ever tell yourself you can’t do something! Always make an effort and put yourself out there, because like they say: you never know until you try.