Dare to Dream Young Girls Network makes front page news!

A couple of blog posts ago, I mentioned that I volunteer as a public relations manager at Dare to Dream Young Girls Network, Inc. in Tallahassee. Well, Ms. Kimolyn, the founder and CEO, and I have been working hard to promote the organization's upcoming event called Breakfast at Tiffany's. I submitted a press release and a media alert to the Tallahassee Democrat, and it resulted in a story on the FRONT PAGE of the Dec. 12 issue of the newspaper! I am so excited for myself and the organization!

Here's the article (Courtesy of the Tallahassee Democrat)


Breakfast at Tiffany's comes to downtown

By Elizabeth M. Mack • DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER • Published: December 12. 2010 2:00AM

Kimolyn Ferrell had a dream of enriching the lives of young girls in her community. So she created Dare to Dream Young Girls Network Inc. in January 2004.

"The program was started initially to teach the girls etiquette and introduce them to different cultural experiences," Ferrell said.

Beth Curtin, the program's after-school facilitator, said the girls are given help with their homework Monday through Thursday. On Fridays, they get to do fun activities such as watching a movie or doing arts and crafts.

"I think it's a fabulous program," Curtin said. "It helps to build their self-esteem and makes them feel good about themselves."

Once a month, the young ladies in the program get all dressed up for breakfast and deep feminine discussion. This month, they are meeting downtown at the Raymond C. Sittig Hall in Kleman Plaza at 10 a.m. Dec 18.

During the four-hour event, there will be various empowerment workshops, several motivational speakers, live music and a mother-and-daughter professional photo shoot.

But they're gathering for more than just a meal and a talk — it's also the second annual Breakfast at Tiffany's event.

The event is a fundraiser that helps the program as well as a family during the holiday season through the "Get to Give" project. This year, they've adopted a family of eight.

For more information, contact Dare to Dream Young Girls Network at (850) 847-3875.

Framing and The Addendum

Two weeks ago I received my LSAT score. When I looked at it, I was not happy with my score, nor was I disappointed. I knew I did the best I could, considering that I rarely perform well on any standardized test. Now that my Law School Admissions Test score battle is over, I have started to fill out applications and gather materials for law schools.

However, I am preparing to fight another battle: telling law schools that I can and will be successful in law school despite my LSAT score. Since receiving my score, I contemplated on how I will portray the aforesaid to the admissions committee who will evaluate my application package. While attending one of my PR courses, I had my “ah hah” moment.

In my PR Research & Strategies course, we discussed the content of a publication by the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions titled "The Psychology of Climate Change: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public." In that publication, we were introduced to framing, which is "the setting of an issue within an appropriate context to achieve a desired interpretation or perspective." After learning about what framing is, I knew that it would be a great technique to use when I am writing to the admissions officers about my LSAT score.

Last week I wrote the first draft of my addendum. It took me a while to figure out the structure of my essay, but I eventually came up with what I wanted to include. First, I wrote about how I prepared for the LSAT, and the amount of time I spent preparing. I also included the materials I used to prepare for the LSAT. Then, I thoroughly explained my standardized test history and how the scores did not accurately predict my success in college and compared it to my LSAT results. Lastly, I gave reasons why I would be a great law school student.

I hope the way that I framed the message in my addendum will persuade law school admissions committees to admit me into their law schools. Wish me luck!

PR and Law Firms

Since I began thoroughly researching law schools and the admissions processes about six months ago, I found myself reading a lot of articles about careers in the legal field. While browsing around the American Bar Association's website today, I found an article titled "Why Law Firm Public Relations Fails." After reading the title, I realized that public relations can truly be tied to any and every field. Although there are some distinct differences in the job descriptions of lawyers and public relations practitioners, after reading the article, public relations practitioners and lawyers have to work together to ensure the success of public relations at law firms.

According to the article, one reason why public relations practitioners and lawyers at law firms should work together is because lawyers tend not to answer calls from public relations agencies, and miss opportunities to share their feedback about matters that may be in the media. As we all have seen in recent years, traditional journalism has been overshadowed by citizen journalism with the increase of social networks, online forums and blogs. Things written by citizen journalists can readily be picked up by news organizations looking to be the first to broadcast news and not checked to see if the facts in the story received are indeed facts, so stories become viral and the public will believe what is out now whether the story is true or false. Therefore, lawyers should work with public relations agencies in responding in a timely manner to preserve their image and their brand, so that it will not get tainted by the media.

In addition, according to the article, lawyers tend to disrespect the value of the public relations practitioners and fail to see how they can work together. After reading that I thought about how I can use my public relations skills to bridge the gap between lawyers and public relations practitioners. When I become a lawyer, I can persuade other lawyers how we could preserve or enhance the image of the law firm favorably in the court of public opinion while still adhering to the laws of the land.

As I learned in my public relations courses thus far, doing the right thing and being seen doing the right thing will make the public see that the organization or individual is genuine in its practices therefore winning the acceptance of the public.

The Personal Statement and PR

As you know, I am applying to various law schools. One of the components of the applications is a personal statement. Since the majority of law schools do not grant formal interviews for applicants, the personal statement has replaced traditional interviewing.

Realizing that the personal statement is a way for admissions officers to get to know me without actually meeting me, I plan to show, on paper, what I can offer to the prospective institutions, thus persuading them to admit me. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to incorporate my public relations skills and writing skills to write a great personal statement.

When I came up with a theme for my personal statement, I began writing ideas for main points and supporting details for my essay. At first glance, I felt as if I was selling myself short because I failed to go into detail about myself, specifically by not mentioning good things about myself. Throughout my life, I have been described by older people as being modest or humble when in actuality I thought that if I said too much about myself that I would appear to be boasting or being pretentious.

However, when I began reading James Hoggan's "Do the Right Thing: PR Tips for a Skeptical Public," I realized that for many reasons I had to be my own PR person when writing my personal statement. One reason being that these law school admissions officers are not super heroes and cannot read my mind. I "...can't sit around and assume that everyone will notice that [I] have done something right ...," and that I "...must take [my] reputation into [my] own hands" (p. 4). I also learned that it is not about me seeming as if I am boasting about myself, but it is about realizing that “it’s a matter of making sure that people who are important to [my] business* know what [I] am doing” or what I have done (p. 12). (*Business, in this context, means admissions council.)

After I establish my reputation, I have to believe what I am writing is true (which, of course, it is) so that others can believe I am credible and will be able to trust what I am writing, too. In addition, I also learned that proof and support of my good reputation and credibility lies in the hands of the people whom I ask to recommend me for law school. Just as what Hoggan emphasized in his book, in order for me to further establish my credibility and reputation, I need to be aware of how my public (this case being the people writing my recommendations) thinks of me. This will confirm what I have written about myself in my personal statement and my other application materials, so there will not be any discrepancies in what I am portraying and the person recommending is writing about me.

Social Media and PR

When I'm not thinking of ways to earn the best LSAT score possible or when I'm not at school, I volunteer as a public relations officer at Dare to Dream Young Girls Network, Inc. Dare to Dream is a nonprofit organization based in Tallahassee, and its mission is to empower girls in the Tallahassee community.

The other day, the president and CEO, Kimolyn Ferrell, and I were discussing different ways to help spread the word about our upcoming event, "It's Girls Talk." She explained to me that she felt it was a waste of money to buy ads in different publications because she knew that there was free publicity she could get for the organization as well as the event. I instantly thought about how I help spread the word about different events at school and how I can apply the same techniques to the nonprofit.

I explained to her the effectiveness of social media nowadays. Not to say that traditional ways to get messages out to the public are ineffective, but for the audiences we're trying to target, we realized many of them spend countless hours on the Internet. Although she does not own many social media accounts herself, Kimolyn is ready to delve into the social media realm and see how far it can take her organization.

Kimolyn mentioned something very interesting  about the power of social media and the advantage people my age have over older people in the workforce who are not familiar with social media. She said that older people should be scared because the younger generation who know how to use social media could come and take their jobs. She also mentioned that social media was a very important skill to have nowadays and that she's eager to see what magic I could make for Dare to Dream by using social media.

I hope I do well!

Balancing Act

Since mid-June, I have been intensely studying for the LSAT without help from commercial study programs like Princeton and Kaplan. Because I knew I would not be able to pay the $1500+ for a program like Princeton Review and Kaplan, I searched for effective ways to study on my own and I found this website http://lsatblog.blogspot.com and followed the suggestions and study schedules religiously. I was on a roll this summer. I would take my prep books EVERYWHERE! On car trips, mall and shopping events, work, barbecues...you get the idea.

But when I came back to school in mid-August, my study habits began to decline. I started having a hard time balancing my senior year classes, organizational and volunteer duties, and LSAT study... and now, I feel like I have been slacking on my studying and the test is less than 3 weeks away! I hope I can get back in the habit of studying and be able to manage my time better, so that I can do well on the test and get into the schools I have considered applying to. PRAY FOR ME!

Intro to Law Interest

In 2009, I was asked "where do I see myself in five years?" The first things that popped into my mind and out of my mouth was, "In five years, I see myself in law school." Honestly, I did not know why I kept saying it because my interests at the time was being a public relations practitioner or the head of corporate communications at a Fortune 500 company.

As I wondered why I kept saying I wanted to be in law school, I started to do some research about different careers in law. I have never really had an interest in criminal law, so shows like "Law and Order" never inspired me to say I was going to law school. While researching, I stumbled upon http://www.discoverlaw.com. On this website, I learned about different fields of law and did a quiz about which type of law I should consider based on my interests. The results of my test were intellectual property and entertainment law. After getting my results, I began to research what intellectual property was (the type of law dealt with the protecting of creative works, whether it be copyrighted works, trademarks, or patents), and knew in an instant this is the type of law I wanted to practice (and of course, I have more reasons that sparked my interests).

Since July 2009, pursuing law has become one of my obsessions and interests. And since, the summer of 2010, I began studying for the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), and researching schools that had courses in the intellectual property and entertainment law. My test is Saturday, Oct. 9, and I plan to have all my applications sent the week before Thanksgiving.