Newhouse public relations program honored by PRWeek

The public relations program in Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications received an honorable mention in the PR Education Program of the Year category of the 2012 PRWeek Awards. The awards are among the highest accolades in the public relations industry.

“Employers rate Newhouse public relations graduates as consistently ‘day-one ready,’” says Brenda Wrigley, chair of the department. “Our award-winning faculty members provide students with knowledge and application through comprehensive learning experiences and strong connections to the profession.”

The award citation listed several strengths of the Newhouse PR program:

• The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter, based at Newhouse, has a record 150 members; 
• Hill Communications was designated as one of 20 student-run PR firms nationally affiliated with PRSSA, and expanded to a record 90 members last year with projected annual revenue of a record $18,000; 
• Students earned spots in the highly competitive internship programs at Lockheed Martin and PepsiCo, among others; 
• Within six months of graduation, 81 percent of undergraduate and 89 percent of graduate alumni are employed full time.

An awards ceremony was held on March 1 in New York City.

Newhouse’s internationally recognized public relations program is one of the few in the United States that offers undergraduate, graduate and mid-career level PR education. For more information, contact Wrigley at 315-443-1911 or brwrigle@syr.edu.