Com Day is held every spring sponsored by the Lamb School Advisory Board and National Geographic Partners. The event is completely free for students due to their generosity, so my first objective is pitching Com Day to our sponsors for funding. To show our appreciation, the president and I decided to film an informative video covering four main points: expressing our gratitude for their support in the past, the impact of Com Day 2017, the purpose of the event, and the initial financial request. Because it was the first year to film and send a video, our sponsors whole-heartedly agreed to the requested budget and commended us for our efforts. 

 

Because of the personal impact of Purdue's 2017 Com Day on my professional journey, I decided to take on this role. Kathleen Henson, founder and CEO of Agency H5, requested the audience to write down five things that make you, you. Because of her keynote and my attendance at the National Conference for Public Relations Student Society of America in the fall of 2017, I created Purdue Com Day's first theme: Find Your PuRpose: Dare to be Bold. The reasoning behind this theme is inspired by Patrice Tanaka, Chief Joy Office at Joyful Planet. At PRSSA National Conference, she stated: "The single, most important effective thing you can do for yourself and success is articulating your life purpose." In line with my purpose-driven mentality, I found it extremely beneficial for students to hear the importance of leading with purpose in the workplace and driving that unique force to stand out. Hugh Totten, Michele Mazur , Alan Ramirez , and Jay Fehnel captured this vision and taught students the importance of discovering and implementing purpose to be bold in the workplace. 

 

Lastly, I implemented the first-ever resume and portfolio review workshop following the program. Michele Mazur, a fellow Com Day Director at Purdue, presented this idea to me because she has monitored a similar set up at Depaul University in Chicago at a PRSSA event. In total, we had 9 reviewers composing of all four speakers and five members from the Lamb School Advisory Board ranging in professional backgrounds from law, marketing, internal communications, advertising, and more.

 

Because the four speakers took a day off of work to participate in Com Day, I invited them to dinner to show my appreciation and gratitude to spend time helping students launch their career and learn from industry experts who were once in their shoes.