Two students from the College of Communications are among five finalists nationally competing this week for the annual PR Week Student of the Year Award.
Robert Corrado, from Demarest, N.J., and Julia Tumas, from Cinnaminson, N.J., both juniors majoring in public relations, will travel Tuesday to New York City for the final judging.
The winner of the award will be announced March 6 at the annual presentation dinner, and will receive $5,000 and a paid internship at Hill & Knowlton, a full-service, multi-specialist public relations companies.
The PR Student of the Year Award is a nationwide contest sponsored by PR Week magazine and Hill & Knowlton. Students who entered the contest were asked to submit a media campaign for a start-up company, including press releases, strategies and tactics.
The five students who reached the final round received an all-expense-paid trip to New York. During the final judging, contestants will be given further challenges, such as presenting their campaign to the mock client and then dealing with a crisis-management scenario.
In 2006, Penn State's Tara Burnham was named PR Student of the Year in the competition. She received the award after completing a campaign for the Freedom of the Seas, one of the newest cruise ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet. Her campaign, titled "Free to be Extraordinary," targeted different types of customers while remaining low-cost for Royal Caribbean.