By Holly Jenvey
Hello everyone! My name is Holly Jenvey and I’m a junior at DePaul double majoring in journalism and public relations and advertising. I’m so excited to start writing for The PRess!
I entered the public relations world this past summer when I participated in PR Council’s Agency Ready Certificate program, where I fell in love with the different kinds of webinars and opportunities, so that’s when I knew this was a career path for me.
My initial passion for PR stemmed from my background in journalism, the major I originally had at DePaul since I was a freshman. Aside from classes, I am involved with many organizations including Radio DePaul and The DePaulia. However, ever since the pandemic hit, a lot has changed not only with how I interacted with my peers and members of the journalistic community, but with my lifestyle in general.
When DePaul announced its closure in March, I immediately hopped on a plane back home to my parents in New York City, where I spent spring quarter. It was my first time pursuing classes online and with the nature of journalism, I was nervous. Since it has such an interactive nature, I knew doing interviews and working production wasn’t going to be the same.
I was also one of Radio DePaul’s News Directors at the time. Our news show “Pocket News” strives to introduce students to college radio and meet many of their peers. It’s a broadcast that runs 15 minutes every weekday on air, (twice a day pre-pandemic) where a team of five newscasters gets to choose what news they would like to report on. The newscasts cover all local, national, international news as well as spotlights on sports and entertainment. Since we would all get together an hour before the newscasts to prepare our scripts for the broadcasts, as well as have general events in the station, Radio DePaul was a very intimate environment where everyone knew one another. So when we went virtual, I knew that community couldn’t be replicated, but could be maintained. Since everyone was trying to adjust to the new normal, we launched broadcasts every Friday in the Spring Quarter and allowed anyone to hop on when they wanted to. It was great to see how our team maintained high spirits and continued to pursue what we’re passionate about amid stressful and uncertain times. Now, since everyone is starting to work their schedules around the pandemic, our new news directors are having broadcasts every weekday.
Aside from Radio DePaul, I became more involved with The DePaulia. I was on Radio DePaul since I was a freshman and wanted to explore other news outlets on campus as well, but never got around to it because of all the time it took commuting from campus to campus along with school deadlines. However, at the end of December last year, I wrote my first article for The DePaulia about holiday traditions around the world, where I had the chance to interview both students and professors who were celebrating the seasons on different continents. From there, I knew I wanted to continue with The DePaulia, but still struggled to grasp how it would fit into my schedule. Yet, over the spring quarter, I enrolled into the “Writing for The DePaulia” class, where I had the chance to submit articles weekly for the publication. It was cathartic getting the chance to speak with different members of the DePaul community over a variety of different topics and having that interaction was extremely beneficial in such isolating times. Because of this aspect, I decided to further commit to The DePaulia and become a Staff Writer, where I continue to write articles for them on a weekly basis. Some of my favorite topics I’ve gotten to write about are health & wellbeing, diving into cultures of other countries and talking about the arts.
At the end of the Spring Quarter, my family and I moved away from New York to Los Angeles. This move was surreal to me because I was looking forward to exploring a new place, however I didn’t know how I was going to make new acquaintances as meeting people during a pandemic seems near to impossible. When we arrived, I immediately fell in love with the nature around me. Seeing the ocean and mountains everyday was a new sight for me since I have lived in cities my entire life. As Los Angeles is more spread out, I have enjoyed exploring my new community safely by hiking, taking long drives,exercising and dining outdoors.
Yet, I also felt that this summer was a time to network. Through meeting students and experts from all over the world with PR Council, I felt that I also found a new home in the public relations world. However, once that ended, I wanted to see how I could use my passions in my local community. I expanded on my journalism pursuits outside of DePaul and joined The Argonaut, a newsweekly publication, as an editorial intern. Through producing articles on a weekly basis, I have become more acquainted with the stories happening in my community, which made me more excited to uncover what’s happening around me.
As fall quarter came around, I knew I was in a different place this year than last. I now have an internship, am more involved with The DePaulia and am still a newscaster for Radio DePaul. However, I also became more interactive with the public relations community by starting my major and joining DePaul PRSSA. These pieces seem to make things come together while navigating uncertain times. I am looking forward to where my PRSSA journey will take me and am excited to continue to learn more about my immediate community, while connecting with people all over the country, and ultimately, around the world.