Seneca Polytechnic Public Relations & Corporate Communications — Semester 1

December 10, 2024 marked the completion of my first semester at the Seneca Public Relations & Corporate Communications (PRCC) program. By then, I was breathless wrapping up four group presentations in the final two weeks. All sorts of emotions washed over me: relief, joy, pride, amazement, grateful. Above all else, I’m surprised I did it: a full-time program with seven courses packed with group projects where I had to learn to work with people I just met weeks before.

While the experience is still fresh in my mind, I want to reflect on what I’ve learned in the last four months and let all the material sink in.

The 2024 Seneca PRCC program

How Seneca compares to other colleges

The PRCC is a post-graduate program, which means students need to hold a bachelors or equivalent to enroll. Seneca has a very strong reputation for this program and many grads have praised it for the quality of education.

Seneca stands out from the other PRCC programs in Toronto with its hyflex classes. Centennial and Humber, the only other schools that offer this program in Toronto, deliver most classes in person. Seneca provides the option to attend all classes online if you choose to. About half of the classes are online, and the other half are hyflex, which means professors teach on campus and stream it online for students to attend remotely. All hyflex classes are recorded for students to revisit. The hyflex option has made learning accessible for students living in the outskirts of the GTA. Many of my classmates tune into lectures from Brampton, Scarborough, and even Windsor! When given an option to attend, I always commute to join in person. Learning feels more effective this way, and it’s a chance to build relationships with classmates and professors. The hyflex option has saved me during a family emergency. In the middle of the semester, I had to take a brief leave of absence to attend a funeral in a different country. Thankfully, the classes I missed were hyflex so I could watch the recording to catch up.

A drawback of Seneca’s PRCC program is that their placements are not guaranteed. The other two schools will help you secure an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with real client work. Seneca offers an optional work integrated learning component that you have to pay an extra $495 to enroll in. It’s the student’s responsibility to find a placement. Seneca’s placement spans four months while the other schools' placement spans two.

Our cohort

Our class has 30 students from all walks of life with with a background in human resources, marketing, journalism, literature, communications, sciences, and music. Some are fresh out of post-secondary school and pursuing further education, or looking for a career change, while others want to strengthen their resume.

Since we’re part of a cohort, we all take the same classes together. It’s especially fun to see how everyone approaches the presentation assignments. Each was different, despite having the same brief. Different slide designs, speaker styles, and modes of deliveries were demonstrated. Rarely do I see how someone else would tackle the same problem at work; it was a luxury to be exposed to so many ideas.

The first semester had seven courses, and six had group projects. WhatsApp was our main channel of communication, so everyone was monitoring six WhatsApp group chats. Let that sink it…SIX WHATSAPP GROUP CHATS! Group work is hard enough — imagine having six at a time. It was peak entropy. Each group had its own team dynamic and everyone was so different. Scheduling a team meeting was a nightmare at best. To protect my sanity, I created a Notion page for each group to organize our files and track internal timelines and meeting notes. Even in a professional setting, it’s not normal to be put into a group without a project manager. The amount of group work was abnormal, so you can imagine how proud I felt by the end of the first semester when we wrapped up all of our projects.

Assessments

The PRCC program will test your skills in time management, organization, patience, team work and most important of all — communication. We are assessed by assignments, group projects, and quizzes. Thankfully, we did not have final exams. All assessments were based on real-world deliverables such as:

• responding to an RFP
• drafting a strategic communication plan
• planning a town hall
• designing a research plan
• building a WordPress blog
• hosting a press conference
• writing an internal communication policy

As you can see, these are real deliverables that employers expect communication professionals to be proficient in.

Next, let’s go through each course in semester 1.

Semester one course load

My cohort started in Fall 2024. Here was my course load for the first semester:

• Public Relations Management Techniques - Internal (hyflex)
• Principles of Public Relations (hyflex)
• Media Relations (hyflex)
• Strategic Communication Planning (hyflex)
• Digital and Social Media (online)
• Writing for Public Relations Practitioners I (online)
• Introduction to Research (online)

Public Relations Management Techniques - Internal

Professor: Holly Cybulski

Course assessments:

• Collaborating with international partners in Belgium to create an internal communications policy
• Town hall plan
• Presentation: hosting a town hall

The aim of internal communications is to boost productivity in an organization by creating channels for collaboration and knowledge exchange. For example, setting an out-of-office notice is a form of internal communications. Imagine waiting to hear back from a vacationer who did not set an autoreply—little did you know that you should have emailed their manager to get what you needed.

Internal communication is closely tied to building organizational culture. This course is hyflex, which means it’s delivered on campus and streamed for online students. Our professor always brings in snacks such as fruit or baked goods. On Halloween, she created this wonderful spread for us:

The highlight of this course is the COIL (collaborative online international learning) project. Our professor partnered with a professor from Artevelde University of Applied Sciences in Belgium. We were placed into teams with a mix of Seneca and Artevlede students to develop an internal communication policy. It was an excellent lesson on global communications and working with people from different cultures.

Internal communications is an area I have am keen to explore more of. At the Data Visualization Society (DVS), I initiated an intranet on Notion with some teams to use for project management. Next, I’m thinking about how to optimize it for the entire team as a place of knowledge documentation and collaboration.

Principles of Public Relations

Professor: Holly Cybulski

Course assessments

• PR and communications job analysis
• RFP proposal
• Presentation pitch

What is PR? What is professional conduct like? What are the ethics of the work? How does one manage his/her mental health? What do jobs in the field look like? This class is a meta look of PR where we have honest conversations about working in the field.

Our first assignment was to research PR and communication jobs and compare compensation, organization culture, requirements, and so on. The assignment prompted us to find job listings in four areas and identify a junior and senior role for each. So eight listings. This was a very useful exercise that primes us for the job hunt when we graduate.

The most memorable class was about mental health. None of our professors shied away from saying that working in PR is stressful. But PR is not ER…it’s still just a job. Our professor asked what we did to relax…and for me it was exercise. But then I realized that I gave up playing badminton at the beginning of the term to focus on my studies. And it hit me like a truck; I gave up something I enjoyed without realizing it. It was so automatic that I didn’t bother to question it. But this class made me think about the kind of career and life I wanted to lead. My past work experience was riddled with work-life imbalances and it burned me out — I was not happy. Work is just work and it’s not worth risking our mental health for. So immediately after this class, I restarted playing badminton. And I felt so much happier and could not be more grateful for having a conversation about mental health in class.

Media Relations

Professor: Mary Pretotto

Course assessments

• Hosting a press conference with Q&A
• Writing a media advisory
• Writing a press release
• Building a media kit
• Developing a media contact list
• Two presentations

Media relations pays special attention to earned media — coverage from others without paying for it. For example, if a customer enjoyed your scented candles and wrote about it on their blog (without being asked or paid to do so), then this is a form of earned media.

The course leaned more towards building relationships with journalists, which is an area I’ve never explored before. My experience has solely been in organic digital media such as social media and email marketing. To be completely honest, I would never have thought about acquiring media placements if it wasn’t for this course.

The most exciting part of this course was the press conference. As a team, we planned and hosted a press conference in class. After each team delivered a speech, we moved on to Q&A and that’s when all hell broke loose. We went at each other’s necks and asked each other really tough questions. It became this weird sense of union where we all tried to stump the presenters. It was so much fun and was the most fun I’ve ever had in class.

Introduction to Digital and Social Media

Professor: Mary Pretotto

Course assessments

• Online brand strategy
• WordPress blog
• Hootsuite Platform and Social Media certifications
• WordPress LinkedIn Learning

We’re so steeped in the digital media that it’s become unavoidable to work with this channel. Throughout the semester, we work towards building a WordPress blog with four published posts. In the first class, our professor said past students have landed jobs due to having a blog. A blog demonstrates of our ability to create content and most importantly — exposes how we think. Even as I read through my classmates’ blogs, I learned so much about them than I ever have over the many weeks I’ve spent with them in class. The depth of information a blog provides is unparalleled.

My blog is about learning Chinese as a heritage speaker which is deeply personal to me. I’ve been learning Chinese on and off for the past decade about effective studying tactics and resources. There’s a lot of knowledge I want to record and share with others like me, who are interested in learning their heritage language. Read my blog: My Chinese Side

So much of my experience and knowledge in digital marketing has been gained informally, i.e. learning on the job. It’s amazing that we completed certifications through this course, especially the Hootsuite Social Media Marketing certification. The material laid out best practices to be successful in social media marketing, such as creating a social media policy, social listening, strategy, and evaluation. At my work with DVS, we’re going to revamp our social media next year. I look forward to applying what I’ve learned.

Strategic Communication Planning

Professor: Mary Pretotto

Course assessments

• Strategic communication plan
• Presentation

After a few weeks attending this course, I knew that mastering its concepts was the defining difference between a director and an associate. Understanding and applying strategic thinking is the hallmark of a leader. It’s necessary to direct the right resources that aligns to the organization’s goals. Never in my five years of working in communication or marketing have I seen a plan that was robust in how it dictates strategy and evaluates its efforts.

You’d be surprised to learn how little gets measured at the end of a campaign. Lack of measurement means no improvement. We run a campaign because it seems like a good idea, but is it worth repeating? What do we measure to answer that question? How can we implement tracking early on to capture the data? If I want to know which digital channels are worth posting on, I need to plan ahead of time and create a unique link per channel to track clicks. This isn’t possible to do post-mortem.

The communication plan template we learn to write is simple and effective. Here are the main sections:

• Situational analysis: What is the state we’re in now? What are the obstacles and opportunities?
• Publics: This is not the same as audience. Who are the relevant parties that interface with the organization? Consider internal and external publics. For example, if you’re a non-profit, volunteers are an important internal public to consider.
• Key messages: What do we want to say?
• Goal: What is the big hairy goal? Think big and aspirational. Don’t get specific.
• Objectives: What are measurable objectives we want to achieve?
• Strategy: For each objective, what is the roadmap?
• Tactics: For each strategy, list the to-do items.
• Evaluation: What are the KPIs that will measure each tactic?

Before learning about this plan template, Google was my only source of knowledge. It was useless and the plans I created never felt robust enough. However, this plan I learned at Seneca was rooted in research (situational analysis) and all the components speak to each other. They all have a purpose to serve.

Our final project was to create a plan and presentation to build awareness if Trader Joe’s expanded into the Canadian market. It was interesting to think about how to build campaigns and sell that to the client. It was so satisfying to see all the pieces come together.

Shortly learning how to write a communication plan, I immediately applied it to my work at DVS. To date, I’ve introduced it to three different projects and feel my confidence grow as a communication professional.

Writing for Public Relations Practitioners I

Professor: Mimi Tsui

Course assessments

• Media Advisory
• Press release
• Backgrounder and fact sheet
• Interview bio
• Communication plan
• Presentation

We learn to write in Canadian Press (CP) Style, the industry standard used by Canadian journalists. For example:

• per cent not percent
• 10 dogs and eight cats, not ten dogs and 8 cats
• honour not honor

The expectation of proper English writing is very strict. We lose a grade point for every three spelling, grammar, or CP Style error. Every assignment had to undergo thorough proofreading — reflecting industry expectations.

The final project is a proposal to help a small business create brand awareness. Our professor invited a local hairdressing school to our class and share the challenges they’re facing. We were tasked with developing a plan to address their challenges. This assignment was based on a real-world client, so it anchored us to think realistically.

Writing press releases was not as difficult as I had imagined. Marketing doesn’t touch on creating press releases; it was foreign territory for me. It’s fun to put the content together. At DVS, I suggested writing a news release to introduce a new board member as a low-risk way to apply what I learned in school. And it turned out so well!

Introduction to Research

Professor: Joe MacDonald

Course assessments

• Five quizzes
• Research plan
• Presentation

Intro to research was the most academically structured class. To study for five weekly quizzes, we read 60-70 pages of our textbook each week. Absolutely brutal.

The final project was to create and present our research plan. If I learned anything from this course, it’s that we don’t truly know anything. When I work with DVS, I think I know who our audience is based on existing data. But what if we’re in a small pond while a larger one exists elsewhere? The Stanley Quencher cup is a wonderful case study of this. Their core demographic were blue-collared American men. Little did they know, it was the perfect product for women on the go. The product resumed production after sagging sales and went on to make over $400 million in sales in 2022. Marketers and communicators aren’t known for being data-savvy professionals, but a strong foundation is necessary to uphold PR campaigns that matter.

Getting ready for semester 2

Enrolling in this program was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. My classmates are all so smart, thoughtful, considerate, and ambitious. We all want the best for each other and continuously challenge each other. So many new doors have opened and my career outlook is full of potential. It’s been so long since I’ve felt so optimistic about job prospects. The next semester starts in two weeks and there is still so much more to learn.

Look out for part 2 of this blog series in the spring of 2025.