First PR Showdown is Held, Winning Team Awarded Professional Development Trip

Wednesday evening, four fortunate students in the Texas Tech University College of Media & Communication each received a plane ticket from Southwest Airlines to travel anywhere they wish in the U.S. at no cost.

This award was the first place prize for the winning team at the PR Showdown, a public relations contest in which teams of students competed in daily challenges for a week before advancing to the PR Showdown Grand Challenge.

Trent Seltzer, right, Texas Tech University public relations chair, presents the student team “Under PRessue” with plane tickets and a plaque, as the grand prize of the PR Showdown in the College of Media & Communication on Wednesday evening.

The grand prize also includes a professional development trip for the four. After being flown into Dallas May 1 for the weekend, “Under PRessure” will stay at the Gaylord Texan and attend a “PR Salon.” This entails the four students having dinner with Dallas area public relations professionals to learn about the career first-hand and to be provided a networking opportunity. A plaque with their names as winners of the first PR Showdown will also be mounted in the college.

“I think we put a lot of effort into it,” said Emily Jarrell, a team member of Under PRessure. “And, we felt confident in what we presented, but, of course, there were a lot of other talented group members here.”

Trent Seltzer, public relations department chair and host of PR Showdown, explained there were five different challenges leading up to the Grand Challenge. Each individual challenge was sent to the then-29 teams at 12:01 a.m. via email each school day during the last week of February. The Grand Challenge was originally scheduled for March 4 but was postponed for inclement weather.

“Strategy, writing, pitching, creative and social media,” Seltzer said, listing each challenge in order. “It ended up being not only testing them on can you do those individual things, like what are your skills, but also kind of overall, can you handle the grid and the pace and the hectic nature of it? Which is reflective of what they’ll do in the industry. You know, no day is the same. Every day is a minor crisis.”

McKenzie Hopson, left, of Under PRessure, speaks to the judges at the PR Showdown Grand Challenge. 

Individual challenges contained awards such as Alamo Drafthouse tickets, Coach Kliff Kingsbury-signed footballs, Coach Tubby Smith-signed basketballs, and reusable bags from the nonprofit Earth Hour and the American Cancer Society.

“Overall, in preparation for this, we’ve spend over 70 hours together as a team,” McKenzie Hopson, another member of Under PRessure, said, and joked they practically lived with each other during the challenge week. “So, that’s at all hours of the night. We have class all day; we’re all in student orgs, so there were times we were sitting up until 4 in the morning working on this.”

Modeling the University of North Carolina academic and athletic scandal in which student athletes received unethical aid academically, the Grand Challenge acted as though a similar issue had occurred at Texas Tech. The three top finalist teams were instructed to role play as leaders of the university and provide damage control for the crisis.

Dylan George, right, of Team 27, speaks during their presentation during the Grand Challenge.

Seltzer explained in this mock situation, a reporter broke the news on Sports Illustrated of allegations of a Texas Tech professor improving a grade for an athlete as well as illegal funding being provided to a former athlete.

Dressed in sleek red and black business professional attire, Under PRessure prepped for the pretend press conference with faculty and judges posing as the media. Hopson acted as the director of marketing and communications, while Jarrell donned the university president role. Chandler Moore became the director of athletics, and the university’s social media manager was Lauren West.

As a team, the four spoke individually, stating to the press what the university currently knew, the matters still under investigation and how information will be communicated when the full story was uncovered. West presented a website created with their contact information and where live updates were posted by the university.

Members of Team 27 receive reusable bags from Earth Hour, a nonprofit company, for winning one of the daily challenges.

Students who finished all five of the weekly challenges, as well as those who additionally finished in the top ten teams, were recognized.

Seltzer said the finalists of the top ten teams include Mariah Koch, Matt Parmely, Cara Hawkins, Kiley Cowley, Elizabeth Lanham, Lauren West, McKenzie Hopson, Emily Jarrell, Chandler Moore, Nikki Culver, Emily Gardner, Casey Hitchcock, Matthew Graham, Efren Gomez, Kahley Paulsel, Julia Pena, Ashley Turner, Hailey Cagle, Courtney Cauthen, Jordan Fowler, Dasha Ivanova, Christiani Saucedo, Ann Kapusta, Sara Carden, Christy Cole, Hoz Fierro, Ty Aldridge, Gabrielle Garcia, Allie Carlson, Malley Rasco, Dixie Frenchette, Nicole Lundberg, Devin Delapp, Daley Smith, Janae Fleming, Ashton Johnson, Joy Stratton, Britney Reynolds, Dylan George, Audra Becker, Jeramie Connatser, Rylan Lujan and Alex Hoffman.

About Allison Terry

Allison Terry is an electronic media and communications major from Lubbock, Texas. She hopes to work in the media industry after graduation.

Comments

  1. What are the team members names?
    Who was on this winning team?

    • Allison Terry says

      Hi Jan,

      “Dressed in sleek red and black business professional attire, Under PRessure prepped for the pretend press conference with faculty and judges posing as the media. Hopson acted as the director of marketing and communications, while Jarrell donned the university president role. Chandler Moore became the director of athletics, and the university’s social media manager was Lauren West.”

      Also, see the last paragraph for those finishing in the top ten teams.
      For a full list of students and teams throughout the entire contest visit: http://ttuprshowdown.com/teams/

      Thank you for your response,
      Allison Terry