Olivet’s Inspired Strategies Agency (ISA) prides itself on creating spaces for students to grow professionally. The agency offers a plethora of professional development opportunities for students to lean in and make the best of their time in ISA. One of those opportunities is a field trip to Chicago to tour professional Public Relations agencies. This semester, ISA loaded the Olivet bus and made the trip up to Chicago to tour Zapwater Communications and Edelman.
As stated in an article written by staff at Explorable Places, when students leave the classroom, they are able to see ways in which what they are learning in school connects with the real world. They begin to understand that what they learn in the classroom is applicable to real life and can help them solve problems they may encounter.
First Stop: Zapwater Communications
Zapwater Communications specializes in hospitality, consumer products and services, design and real estate, fashion, beauty and retail, and travel and destination.
What makes Zapwater unique is its ability to help its clients obtain their maximum reach, regardless of how near or far their target market is.
ISA students had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Zapwater employees, Amanda ReCupido, the Managing Director for the Chicago office; Madie Holland, publicist; Carley Mahoney, a Social Media and Influencer Marketing Specialist and David Zapata, the company’s CEO.
They went over a variety of different projects that they have worked on while providing priceless advice for the ISA students. The Zapwater employees gave a detailed look into the life of a PR agency.
“Zapwater is happy to open our doors to students to get a peek inside agency life from our experts doing the work in PR, social media and influencer relations,” ReCupido said, “Office visits such as the one by the Olivet Nazarene group helps take the theory out of the classroom and show how it’s applied in the real world.”
Fining Dining At Chicago’s French Market
Following the tour at Zapwater, the ISA students walked over to Chicago’s famed French Market for lunch. The French Market is a year-round European-inspired indoor food market for grab-&-go meals, fresh produce & specialty kiosks. Grabbing lunch at the French Market was a hit amongst the ISA students.
On To Edelman
Following lunch, the group made their way over to Edelman.
Edelman is the world’s number one public relations firm, with offices and clients worldwide.
ISA students had the privilege of listening to a panel of Edelman media executives, Ashley Antonini, Hadley Kerr and Julia Merirink. They detailed various different aspects of life working at Edelman, such as being able to connect with other Edelman employees worldwide and traveling for work. They also highlighted that a day of work always looked different.
Antonini highlighted that some of the different offices focus more on specific sectors. However, all of the Edelman employees reach out to each other if an issue arises.
Following the panel discussion, the ISA students were taken on a tour of the Edelman office where they were able to get a glimpse of employees hard at work. Kerr and Antonini pointed out various parts of the office that have heightened their experience of working at Edelman, such as the elevator and the newly installed Edelman history feature known as “The Museum.”
Headed Home
ISA is doing extraordinary work and is crafting young professionals to take the world by storm. Field trips like these are extremely important as they aid in the overall career advancement for students.
Many things can come from trips such as this one, things such as professional networking opportunities and internships.
Field trips are extremely useful in teaching college students key information needed during their targeted learning activities at all levels of education.
To learn more about the ways in which students benefit from being a part of ISA, check out Halie’s article.
To learn more about Zapwater Communications, please visit their website.
To learn more about Edelman, please visit their website.
