Public Relations Professionals Can Use APR Certification Toward Northeastern University Master’s Degree

Northeastern University College of Professional Studies is offering students who have successfully completed the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) professional certification the equivalent of three courses of academic credit (9 quarter hours) toward a Master of Science in Corporate and Organizational Communication. This recognizes the rigorous program of study required to earn the APR, which is the industry credential for public relations professionals who demonstrate their understanding of and commitment to strategic communications principles through a multi-step review process based on established industry competencies.

“As a program for working professionals in the communications field, we recognize the powerful combination of skills earned in the workplace and knowledge acquired through professional credentialing programs such as the APR,” said Carl Zangerl, PhD, faculty director, graduate communication and human resource management programs. “The APR aligns with the Northeastern master’s program because it emphasizes the application of theory to practice and recognizes the importance of lifelong learning in a rapidly changing field.”

The communications competencies recognized in the APR map to the learning outcomes in three master’s-level courses.

Accreditation in Public Relations

Developed in 1964, the APR is governed and continually updated by the Universal Accreditation Board (UAB), which represents nine public relations organizations with more than 25,000 public relations professionals as members. In order to earn the APR, candidates present a comprehensive public relations plan to a panel of their peers, followed by a computer-based Examination that assesses understanding of a comprehensive set of industry knowledge, skills, and abilities.

“We are thrilled that Northeastern University understands the rigorous nature of the accreditation process and is recognizing that value in a meaningful way as part of meeting its master’s course requirements,” said Judy Katzel, APR, UAB 2017 Chair. “This is a real testament to the importance of lifelong learning.”

Applying to Northeastern

Successful applicants to the master’s program in Corporate and Organizational Communication who hold an APR or an APR+M will enter the degree program with “advanced standing” and will only need to complete 12 courses, instead of the 15 courses required of students without the APR. This advanced standing transfer credit enables public relations professionals with an APR to complete an advanced degree in a shorter timeframe and approximately 20% savings in tuition.

Northeastern University College of Professional Studies offers the Master of Science in Corporate and Organizational Communication 100% online or on campus in Boston, MA. This provides flexibility for working professionals in a practice-oriented curriculum, taught by professionals in the field.

About Northeastern University College of Professional Studies

The College of Professional Studies is one of nine colleges of Northeastern University, a nationally ranked private research university in Boston, MA. Founded in 1960, the College teaches undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students on campus and online in more than 65 degree programs and is part of The Professional Advancement Network, a pioneering new model of education for working professionals who recognize the value of lifelong learning as a strategy for career development. More than 225,000 graduates make up the Northeastern Husky alumni network, in all 50 U.S. states and in nearly 150 countries.

About the Universal Accreditation Board

The Universal Accreditation Board coordinates all activities related to the Accredited in Public Relations certification. The UAB was established in 1998 by a coalition of public relations professional organizations, which currently includes: Asociación de Relacionistas Profesionales de Puerto Rico, California Association of Public Information Officials, Florida Public Relations Association, Maine Public Relations Council, National Association of Government Communicators, National School Public Relations Association, Public Relations Society of America, Religion Communicators Council and the Southern Public Relations Federation. For more information about the APR designation and UAB, visit www.praccreditation.org.

2016 Co-op Awards Ceremony

Excellence at Work

A Year of “Firsts” for Annual Co-op Awards; Eight Students Receive Awards

Each academic year, approximately 500 Northeastern students take part in work placements related to their field of study through the College of Professional Studies (CPS) Experiential Learning program. At the end of each year,  the College honors select students at the annual Co-op Awards ceremony, based on nominations from employers. 

The 2015/2016 Co-op Awards, which honored eight students, saw a series of firsts: the first award winner from the Experiential Network program; and the first recipient from the University’s Charlotte campus.

Zubi Aziz (Master of Science, Regulatory Affairs for Drugs, Biologics, and Medical Devices) received a Career Development award for her co-op at Baxalta, a start-up biopharmaceutical company. Zubi was known as the “go-to resource” in the department, according to Patricia Carolini, the head of safety analytics at Baxalta, who described Zubi as someone with exceptional integrity, character, and professionalism. They were so impressed, in fact, that Zubi has been offered a full-time position at the company.

Shuli Ciu (Master of Science, Regulatory Affairs for Drugs, Biologics, and Medical Devices) also received a Career Development award after completing two co-ops at Cerulian Pharma, Inc., first in regulatory affairs and then in clinical operations. Tiffany Crowell, vice president of clinical operations, saw Shuli “grow from an observing student to become an active participant in clinical trials, working well in cross-functional teams.”

Pamela Darcy-Demski, (Master of Science, Corporate and Organizational Communication) received the new Experiential Network Award, designed to recognize students involved in short-term projects offered through a corporate sponsor. Pamela conducted a feasibility analysis on Massachusetts State Police Academy’s use of technology in training cadets, helping it transition to a more user-friendly cloud technology. Melinda Lovick, the e-learning coordinator for the academy, spoke of Pamela’s capacity to “exercise professionalism and poise and routinely go above and beyond.”

Jennifer Krajewski (Master of Science, Regulatory Affairs for Drugs, Biologics, and Medical Devices) was awarded the Integrative Experiential Learning Award for students who participate in a co-op in their own place of employment. In Jennifer’s case, this was TreeHouse Foods, where she led a cross-departmental initiative to update labels based on the release of the State of Vermont’s Genetically Modified Food Labeling Regulation—all outside of her normal duties at the company. Her new role increased her contact with staff from other departments. “This program set me up for some of the best learning experiences I have had at Northeastern so far,” said Jennifer in her acceptance speech. 

Kyle Moore (Master of Arts, Homeland Security) was one of two recipients of a Leadership Award for his work with the National Guard Homeland Security Institute. Captain Christopher Johnson, deputy director of the Institute, praised Kyle’s hard work on a small team of four staff members leading national and state-level initiatives. “People are better protected and better able to respond to disasters than they were before, thanks to work that Kyle did,” said Captain Johnson.

Nicole Wilde Merl, (Master of Science, Corporate and Organizational Communication), a student at Northeastern’s Charlotte campus, was awarded the Student Scholar Award for initiating a virtual co-op with Washington, D.C.-based public relations agency, Thomas Cooke and Associates. Nicole described her internship as a “true two-way internship” with faculty and Thomas Cooke equally invested in the project, which created a social platform to empower women to vote in 2016 and beyond through a project called WomenVotes.org.

Chirag Rathod (Master of Science, Project Management) was a recipient of the Leadership Award. Joe Flynn, Northeastern alumnus and director of inside sales for Akamai Technologies, credited Chirag for helping his company secure a $1 million deal, its biggest that year, and praised Chirag for leading by example, seeing the big picture, and coming up with creative solutions to challenges. “I never felt like an intern,” Chirag said in his acceptance speech. “I was always encouraged to participate in every team meeting and was given an opportunity to innovate and challenge the traditional way of working without having that fear of failure.” Chirag has since been offered the opportunity to stay on with the team full-time.

Qi Qin (Master of Science, Global Studies and International Relations) was awarded the Student Scholar Award for her work with Quincy Asian Resources. As an outreach specialist, Qi hired, trained, and supervised a team of eight bilingual undergraduate students and volunteers, and, in the words of Executive Director John Brothers, “the department‘s performance improved remarkably under her leadership.” She has now transitioned into the role on a permanent basis.

5 Tips to Improve Your Company’s Blog

By Derek Scheips.

Derek Scheips , MFA, is a faculty member in the Master of Science in Corporate and Organizational Communication and Master of Professional Studies in Digital Media programs, and a content consultant in a variety of industries. 

Company blogs can be an effective way to humanize a brand and an organization. Blogs offer a chance to depart from the dreaded “corporate speak” of many traditional web site pages, so employees and stakeholders tend to get inspired to set up a blog.

And doing so is easier than ever, thanks to increasingly versatile templates.

But keeping a blog going with fresh and compelling content, not to mention keeping up with how most audiences now consume and share information, can pose complex challenges to companies of all sizes.

Here are some tips to keep a company blog on track and relevant. 

1. No Currency without Currency

People make immediate judgments when clicking on a blog. Most blog entries are dated, so if your posts are not both recent and frequent, their value will be called into question and may be skipped entirely.  Give employees who are your bloggers enough advance time to develop quality posts, but hold them to deadlines, otherwise the eventual posting may no longer be relevant.

2. See It, Be It 

Blogging evolved from personal essay and memoir, and a finely crafted post with text and carefully selected links can still be compelling if informative or entertaining enough. But study after study shows that today’s audiences are far more likely to search for, click to, and experience content that has a visual aspect. If few people are visiting or staying with your posts long enough to absorb them, embedding pics, video clips, or other dynamic content choices can bring your blog new life.

3. Let Some Air In 

 Although promotion of a brand, its products and services, and even the people behind them, are to a certain extent expected (it is a company blog after all), delegate most of that sort of thing to its proper place (such as the newsroom) or formats (press releases) on the main web site. For repeated viewing, your blog can’t just be endlessly navel-gazing.

Encourage your employee bloggers to research and comment on bigger issues in your industry or the marketplace, and thus add value to a wider audience. Most of all, let people comment on the posts. Sure, there might be some negative feedback sometime, but transparency is the golden rule of social media, and the process can help you generate other posts based on questions and comments that come up this way, and all together may drive insights that improve the entire business. 

4. Promote, Measure, Plan…Repeat

As suggested above, practically everyone is gung-ho at the start of a new blog, and it can be time-consuming for a team of bloggers to simply keep it filled with current material of interest to key audiences. The bad news? There are even more steps if you truly want the blog to catch fire and become something that keeps the conversation going online and hopefully offline (if you want it to have some effect on your business).

Besides the bloggers, your other employees need to keep up with the blog topics, contents, and share new post within their networks. Someone else needs to be monitoring and measuring the performance of the blog. And still another person or team need to think about using that data and feedback mentioned above to map out the future of the blog entries, and to continuously improve the blog as a whole.

5. Hey, Where Did Everybody Go?

 If you are taking most of the steps outlined above, yet see clicks or viewership trailing off, you very well may be getting tripped up by perhaps the most challenging obstacle of all: the very nature of social media and overall audience preferences, as it evolves.

Though blog posts were once the fun, informal alternative to boring old corporate web copy, even when well done, or enhanced with some of the multimedia mentioned above, it’s now a reality that many viewers will inevitably view blog posting as kind of an “old-school” format to have to surf over to, when they could instead view or participate in microblogging on Twitter, view 6-second videos on Vine, look at pretty pictures on Pinterest, or linger on other visually oriented networks such as Instagram or SnapChat, or even get curated and ranked news on similar topics to your blog’s from Reddit.

Yep, your company, as well as your bloggers and employees, may need to have accounts on many of these emerging channels, if only to remind the thousands on them daily that your company blog exists and that it is worth the time to visit and experience.