Student Speak

Spring 2008

Name: Sierra Holland
Year: Senior
Major: Public relations
Hometown: Seneca

What do you do at the Historic Columbia Foundation? I help the foundation's director of communications with public and media relations. I help to draft press releases and media advisories, help with distribution of releases and send them to the proper media. I also pitch stories to radio and television news shows. I write the staff newsletter and an e-newsletter, and I maintain part of the foundation's Web site.

How did you get the job? It started as a part-time job that I found out about through the journalism school, so I applied for it. Now I'm using it as an internship, so that really worked out.

Do you like it? I do. It's a first-hand look at what I'd be doing in a PR department in a company. I chose public relations as a major because I like to write, I like people, and I like the variety of the job. No two days are ever the same. You can't really predict if a media outlet will do a story on your event or not--it's up to you to convince them to cover your event.

Name one thing that has played a part in your success at Carolina. I'm in the Opportunity Scholars Program, and that has helped me make the transition from high school to college and, hopefully, to career. For most students, the program begins as Upward Bound in high school and then becomes Opportunity Scholars Program, or OSP, in college. But at the end of the year, current OSP students can recommend incoming freshmen for the program, which is how I got into OSP. The program is usually for first-generation college students, and it offers smaller classes at first, so you get more of a one-on-one with professors. You have multiple classes with other OSP students and you develop relationships with those students. The OSP English class helped to strengthen my writing skills and that's been very helpful as a journalism major. OSP also provides scholarships to help alleviate the cost of tuition. The program offers tutoring. All freshmen taking English with OSP are required to get tutored by OSP upperclassmen. I was an OSP tutor in my sophomore and junior years. OSP also has a mentoring program for freshmen to help them get used to the college experience. I was a mentor my sophomore year.

You graduate in August. Are you interviewing? Not yet, but I've started to talk to my internship director about jobs. The School of Journalism and Mass Communications hosts career fairs with lots of organizations, including several from out of state. I'll try to set up several interviews with participating companies to start my career search.

What would be your dream job? Something very similar to what I'm doing now at the Historic Columbia Foundation. Maybe doing something with children, like working with the Boys & Girls Clubs, or a children's hospital.

3/08