Crafting Stories and Careers: Cedarville's PR Program Shapes Future Communicators

The role of a public relations department may vary at different organizations. At Cedarville University, the PR team’s main responsibility is to communicate and connect stories of faculty, students, and alumni with social media and traditional media outlets that advance the university’s reputation.??

Cedarville’s PR team has been focused on this mission for decades, primarily using a team of students to effectively communicate to both internal and external audiences. Many of the students are pursuing degrees in communication, whether it's professional writing and information design, communication or broadcasting, digital media, and journalism. With two full-time professionals and five students, Cedarville’s PR team has become a trailblazer of positive information that has aided in the university’s enrollment growth and fundraising successes.??

“The level of real-life learning our communication students receive from working in Cedarville’s public relations department is as powerful as an internship anywhere else,” said Derrick Green, chair of the department of communication. “Because the students are treated as young professionals in their PR roles, I have personally seen their personal and professional growth, and they are ready for a career in communications as a result.”?

While the students gain practical experience, Cedarville University also benefits from the regional, national and sometimes international exposure.??

“Our mission in PR at Cedarville is to strategically tell stories so that the people who read or hear our stories are better informed about Cedarville University so they can be more fully engaged with our mission as a university,” said Mark D. Weinstein , executive director of public relations since 2013. “As a department focused on communications, we embrace the important responsibility of communicating well because we know our stories can have a wide-ranging impact in the lives of many people.”?

Throughout the past decades, students have risen to the occasion of telling Cedarville’s stories. In fact, during the past decade, the team of student writers have written more than 3,600 stories that have been distributed to media outlets across the nation and have led to an interview on the Cedarville Stories Podcast (cedarville.edu/cedarvillestories ). The potential impact of these stories, according to Meltwater, a third-party media analytics firm, is in the millions of viewers or readers.?

While the impact is noteworthy, it pales in comparison to how the skills that are developed and honed as student PR writers have propelled the students to significant communication positions after graduation. And, these skills have taken the students to careers with notable ministries and organizations, including Trans World Radio, the Kansas City Star, The Mighty 990--KWAM Radio in Memphis, Tennessee, Quantum Health, The Hershey Company, Stanford University, Lancaster Bible College and Good News Media.?

Kathryn Sill , who now works as the communication manager for neurosurgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine, began her career as an unsure student who was seeking her way through college. She joined Cedarville’s PR team in 2014 and effectively used her two-year PR experience to gain confidence, both in writing and professional development. As a result, she was able to land some of the most prestigious communication positions in higher education.??

As a student writer, Sill was given writing assignments in health care, primarily for Cedarville’s School of Pharmacy. In this role, she asked questions and learned more about the pharmaceutical profession, helping her to advance the reputation of the new pharmacy program.??

When she began handling the health care beat at Cedarville, little did she know that her health care assignments at Cedarville would pave the way for a successful career. In addition to being a communication leader in her present position at Stanford, she also held communication roles at the University of California at San Francisco and Gilead Sciences in Foster City, California.?

“As I look back on my career, I know that working in Cedarville’s public relations department was extremely formative in preparing me for my career,” said Sill. “Every communication role that I’ve held since graduating Cedarville has been in the health care or biotech field. I am grateful for the opportunities and training I received as a Cedarville PR student because they’ve helped me to excel in the communications field.”?

Sill recalls that she didn’t come to the PR job with confidence or experience in writing about health care. Although she was a writer for the university’s student newspaper, Cedars, her assignments varied and didn’t include health care topics. Researching the role of the pharmaceutical industry and asking questions of faculty members in Cedarville’s School of Pharmacy were instrumental in her personal and professional development.?

Nathan Pilling , meanwhile, was focused on a career in journalism, and he used his student experience to launch a career in print journalism.? Today, he’s a breaking news reporter for The Kansas City Star.??

Pilling, who worked for the Cedarville PR team from 2011 until his graduation in 2014, catapulted his student job into a journalism career that began at the Xenia Daily Gazette near Cedarville. From there, he accepted a position with the Kitsap Sun in Washington state before taking his current role with The Kansas City Star earlier this year.?

Pilling came to Cedarville for a double major in broadcasting and digital media and journalism , and it was the university’s PR office that gave him his first taste of what a real-world newsroom environment could be. It was during his college career that he honed his skills in interviewing, discernment, reporting and understanding what it takes to capture the essence of a story.?

“I had a broad view of news writing, and while journalism was where I ended, my work in public relations rounded out the communication skills that I needed,” said Pilling. ‘It’s writing, it’s editing, it’s working on deadlines, it’s interviewing and it’s a million other skills that you can’t fully learn in a classroom. My time working for Cedarville helped refine them all, regardless of which field I chose.”?

Many more former student writers have leveraged their PR experience at Cedarville for meaningful careers — some outside of the communication profession.?

Hannah (Fair) Kahn , who graduated in 2020 with a bachelor of arts in English, pursued graduate education in English with a certificate in public relations and advertising — in part due to her work for Cedarville’s PR department from 2017–19. Now, Kahn uses those skills as she teaches at Lancaster Bible College and Capital Seminary and Graduate School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.??

“I learned PR skills are immensely valuable and transferable to any job,” said Kahn. “Being able to write, communicate and represent an organization well is always valuable. I have continued to build on the skills that I developed as a student PR writer through the opportunities that I have at Lancaster Bible College.”?

Likewise, Alex Boesch , who graduated in 2023, credits his time working for PR as the beginning of his career. Boesch is now pursuing his doctoral degree in interpersonal and organizational communication at Ohio University while acting as a teaching associate and assistant director of forensics. During his time at Cedarville, Boesch was a part of the forensics team and a student writer.?

“The most valuable part of my time with public relations was learning how to talk to so many different people, on and off campus, with so many backgrounds and unique stories,” said Boesch. “The ways I learned to speak with people and how to truly listen to them while making them feel heard is a skill that I use daily in my research, in my workplace and with my own students.”?

While Cedarville’s PR student writers over the years have made a lasting impact on Cedarville University through the stories they have written, their impact has also been noticeable by media across the country.?

There are media outlets that use the Cedarville PR writers as stringers, or freelance writers, for their organization. With a byline connected to their stories, the students are able to develop a portfolio of their work with reputable media outlets. This visibility helps the students to quickly start their careers after graduation.?

Bryson Durst is a classic example. He worked in the PR department in his senior year, and the strength of his writing and the experience he gained paved the way for him to secure a writing position for the News-Herald in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, before he graduated.??

“We always look forward to the stories coming from the student writers at Cedarville University because they are well thought out stories and accompanied with photos that help us share how young people are actively involved in innovation, helping others, sharing Jesus and growing lifelong friendships,” said Richard Hunt , news feature and digital content manager at K-Love Radio Network in Franklin, Tennessee. “It becomes very clear to us that Cedarville’s students get a customized education from professors who want to make a difference in the lives of tomorrow’s leaders.”?

Cedarville’s PR team of student writers continue to write compelling stories that are picked up by local, state and national media outlets. And in return, these students are gaining valuable experience that will lead them to meaningful professional careers — whether they go into PR or another communication field.

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is a Baptist university with undergraduate programs in arts, sciences, and professional programs, and graduate programs. With an enrollment of 6,384 students in 175 areas of study, Cedarville is one of the largest private universities in Ohio and is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, and high graduation and retention rates. For more information about the University, visit cedarville.edu .??