Liam Al-Hindi
CONTRIBUTOR
The 2020 Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Nebraska Paper Anvil Awards held earlier this month acknowledged excellence in public relations from 2019, at both the professional and university levels. Out of organizations and agencies from all over Nebraska vying for over 200 awards, four UNO-based organizations took home an impressive 17 awards at the event.
The Nebraska PRSA chapter website states that the organization seeks to support the statewide community of people involved with public relations. One of the ways in which they do this is by hosting the Paper Anvil Awards Gala, recognizing various public relations organizations. The four UNO organizations who won awards this year were the UNO Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), the UNO Advertising Club, MaverickPR and UNO Capstone Communication.
“Our organizations showcase outstanding teamwork and communication. We have an awesome variety of students, and UNO and each person brings their own perspective and expertise to the table,” said UNO student Kaitlin Mason, a member of all four of these organizations.
On top of teamwork, Mason also spoke to the amount of effort and dedication that is asked of UNO School of Communication students in order to achieve success.
“Sometimes bigger projects simply require a lot more time, but you can tell when students are really dedicated to doing a good job and giving that extra amount of time to work on a project for an award,” Mason said. “More hours definitely means more blood, sweat and tears.”
Notable achievements include the PRSSA’s “Talk, Not Talking Points,” which won “Best of Show” in the “Outstanding Strategy to Address a Problem” and “Outstanding Classroom Campaign” categories, and the MaverickPR video “Comfort Food Classics — Chef Solberg Feature” in the “Outstanding Video” category. These projects not only won the highest scores in their categories but were also only some of the projects from UNO to do so. Professor Melodae Morris, from the UNO School of Communication, attested to what these achievements mean.
“Our School of Communication students receive hands-on experiences working with clients to produce high-quality work,” Morris said.
Morris also emphasized that multiple awards won by UNO organizations were in competition not just with other university organizations, but professional firms, as well.
“These awards demonstrate how prepared our students are to enter the workforce,” she said.
Mason also highlighted the benefit that winning these awards will have on the futures and careers of the students involved.
“Academically I think it simply shows that they [the students] are learning real skills in school that apply to their future jobs. Professionally, they are going to be able to show future employees that they have this confidence, and that they have strong skills that are very highly recognized,” Mason said.
A full list of the 2020 Paper Anvil Awards winners can be found here.
Link for list: https://prsanebraska.starchapter.com/downloads/paper_anvil_awards_winners.pdf
