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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 the last of our featured stories.

Principles of Public Relations Service Learning
Jordan Morehouse  | Clemson University

Service learning is an integral part of Dr. Jordan Morehouse’s Principles of Public Relations course at Clemson University. While students learn about public relations planning, implementation, strategy, and ethical communication during class, for one hour a week in lab they dedicate their time and new knowledge to drafting materials for one of four non-profit organizations: three that the instructor hand-picks as partners for our class, and students also have the opportunity to work with a non-profit of their choice that is not on the curated list. Some organizations my class has partnered with include AID Upstate, L-CMD Research Foundation, ARC of Oconee County, Bridge II Sports, and The LOT Project. This semester-long lab project enables students to practice what they learn about in class, learn how to engage with a “client” (or as we refer to them, “partner”), and our partner organizations receive high-quality public relations materials that they can then utilize to spread awareness, educate stakeholders, gain donations, strengthen relationships, and/or advocate. 

After engaging in a service-learning model like this for at least one class per semester for the past five years, Dr. Morehouse has some advice and tips for instructors seeking to employ a similar model:

1. Provide students with the opportunity to engage with partner organizations within and outside the classroom, but also protect the organizations from a tidal wave of student questions and emails before assignments are due. 

• One tip that has worked well in my courses is to create a shared Google doc, where students post their questions for the partner organizations, and a representative from within the partner organization respond to the questions when they’re available (typically they respond every Thursday or Friday). This enables the instructor to monitor the questions students are asking, all students can see all questions so repeated questions are minimized, and it provides one space where the non-profit partner can answer all the questions posed. Some questions involve providing quotes (relatively short time-commitment to respond to), whereas other students ask for historical information (longer time-commitment for response). This approach has reminded students that they need to ask questions early, it has saved the non-profit partners from having their inbox clogged from student emails, and it has been useful for students to see the other types of questions their peers are posing.

2. Clearly communicate expectations, deliverables, and processes to all parties early on.

• The non-profit organizations we’ve partnered with for my courses have always been eager and excited to work with students, and sometimes can be discouraged when I reveal that the creation of the public relations documents takes place over the course of the semester, thus they won’t receive news releases, social media posts, or brochures until after the semester is completed. Managing expectations regarding timing, sending updates about work completed or edited, and reminding partners about our process (students write, I edit, students revise, I edit again, then the partner receives it) is imperative to cultivate trust and ensure that the partner is receiving the best version of the documents possible.

• Similarly, students are often surprised that a core component of public relations writing is editing their own work, peers’ work, and critically reviewing the past and current strategy of our non-profit partners. So, clearly communicating with students that they will formally revise their work at least once—but likely more than once—and that this editing and revising is a fundamental component of producing their assignments. 

3. Advise students on how to list this work on their resumes, particularly if this is the only relevant professional experience they have.

• While they may look the same, the assignments students complete in my classroom are not the same as work completed in a job or internship due to my involvement, guidance, editing, and the classroom environment itself. Thus, advising students on how to accurately describe and list their experiences with an in-class service-learning project is critical so students can accurately and fairly represent their professional experience to potential employers. 

4. Vet partner organizations according to need, communication, and flexibility, not according to name recognition. 

• While partnering with well-known organizations, like American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, or World Wildlife Fund certainly attracts student and university interest, I prefer partnering with smaller non-profit organizations that have an urgent and critical public relations need that students can fulfill. Partnering with smaller organizations provides students the opportunity to work more closely with the organizations, see the impact of their work sooner, and have a more nuanced understanding of how non-profit organizations actually work (including the strengths and weakness of the communication function within non-profit organizations).