Each year, the AEJMC Public Relations Division showcases our members’ service-learning and community-engaged learning pedagogical experiences. In 2023, we are highlighting the work of five members who are bringing real-world communications challenges into the classroom to enrich student learning and impact their communities. Here’s one of our featured stories, and mark your calendars for a virtual brown bag session with our featured members on April 20 at 1 p.m. ET.
It Happened Here - Citizenship and Civic Engagement Course
Arien Rozelle, MS, APR | St. John Fisher University
As part of St. John Fisher University’s citizenship and civic engagement core curriculum, I developed a course called “It Happened Here.” St. John Fisher is located in Rochester, N.Y., which was home to both Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. I was interested in the role of civil rights and social justice history as drivers of tourism to the area, and wanted my students to experience some of Rochester’s rich civil rights history. So, I partnered with the city’s official tourism agency, who will be joining our course four times throughout the semester, and students will make off-site visits to the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House, Mount Hope Cemetery (where Anthony and Douglass are buried) and more to come.
Course description: Cities, organizations and companies actively seek to raise awareness and drive tourism through mutually beneficial relationships with key publics. Using Rochester, N.Y. as our focus, this course examines the role of public relations in civil rights and social justice related tourism. Through readings and hands-on experiences, this place-based course will cover a range of topics including public relations, storytelling, social media, social justice, civil rights, tourism, cultural diversity, and history. Students will work both individually and collaboratively, and, through a partnership with a local PR or tourism agency, will apply learning from the course to the research, planning, implementation and evaluation of a campaign that highlights Rochester’s civil rights and social justice history.
Objectives - The student who successfully completes this course should be able to:
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Develop an awareness of the role that public relations plays within an organization and its key publics.
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Explore a range of real-life public relations scenarios through readings, discussions and assignments.
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Understand the importance of communicating for a specific audience with an objective in mind.
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Research, plan, implement and evaluate a public relations campaign with a specific objective in mind.
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Identify examples of Rochester’s civil rights and social justice history.
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Apply classroom knowledge to the broader community.
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Enhance communication skills as well as the ability to work individually and as part of a team.
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Demonstrate learning through discussions and assignments.