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Thank Your Mentor Day * January 21, 2016

As a highlight of National Mentoring Month 2016, Thank Your Mentor Day™ will be celebrated January 21. On that day, many Americans will reach out to thank or honor those individuals who encouraged and guided them, and had a lasting, positive impact on their lives. These are simple ways you can thank your mentor: Contact your mentor directly to express your appreciation; Express your gratitude on social media. Pass on what you received by becoming a mentor to a young person in your community; Make a financial contribution to a local mentoring program in your mentor’s honor; and, Write a tribute to your mentor for posting on the Who Mentored You? website. You can download a Thank…

A connector: more than just an adviser

Professional adviser of UW-Eau Claire Public Relations Student Society of America chapter wins prestigious service award  Salesmen, mavens and connectors. These are the three types of people in the world, according to Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point.” Barbara Arnold, professional adviser to the UW-Eau Claire Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) said after reading Gladwell’s book she realized she belongs to the connector category. Connectors serve as hubs in this world; connecting people across different places and different social, political, financial and professional rings, according to Gladwell’s book. This may be why Arnold became one of 35 public relations professionals in the world to receive the Paul M. Lund Public Service Award at…

2015 PRSA Public Service Award Recipient

NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2015 – The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) announced today that it will present Barbara E. Arnold, MBA, APR, with the Paul M. Lund Public Service Award. The award will be presented at the PRSA 2015 International Conference during the Monday Networking Luncheon on Nov. 9 in Atlanta, GA. “Barbara has excelled as a public relations professional for more than 30 years, and because of her exemplary service and dedication to giving back to the community, she is the perfect candidate for this prestigious award,” said Kathy Barbour, APR, 2015 PRSA National Chair. “Barbara has stated that she is most proud of her work as a mentor; a statement that I hope all in our Society can…

Positioning Yourself in a Challenging Job Market

Tara Cegla

Protégés. This post’s for you. What joy to re-connect with two of my former students at the PRSA MN seminar on Thurs. July 28 called “Positioning Yourself in a Challenging Job Market.” Say hello to Tara Cegla, PR Star and Intern at the Minnesota State Fair this summer. Tara is a former PRSSAer at UW-Eau Claire, and one of my favorite former students. So am I biased when I talk about her, YOU BET! Her Dream: to work at a top-flight agency such as Weber Shandwick or Padilla Speer Beardsley in Minneapolis. She is a HUGE TWINS fan, too! And judging by the terrific media kit she showed me–her latest project with the fair–she is likely to be…

Scott Cutlip

Effective Public Relations, book by Scott Cutlip

When I first met Scott Cutlip, I really didn’t know who he was and how famous he was. He was so down-to-earth and approachable. I was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison walking down the hall on the 5th floor of Vilas Hall, when he happened to call me into his office. He was a professor and had that rumpled, elder statesman look. I was a journalism major who wrote for the Daily Cardinal, a kid in t-shirt and jeans.  He sat me down and asked me if I’d ever considered a career in public relations. I answered that I didn’t even know what public relations was. And, he handed me a brochure called “Why Girls…

Dad

Dad and Me and "Roads and Street"

My dad was a bridge builder. He was a character too. Anyone who met him always remembered him. He had that kind of personality. What I’m most grateful to my dad for is his sense of adventure. He was a risk-taker. And, he lived life to its fullest, whether diving or flying. If not for my dad, I might have stayed in the Midwest my entire life. Because of him, I had the courage to step out of my comfort zone, and go on adventures around the world. Thanks Dad!

Mom

Mom, Barbara and Kitty

My mom was a teacher. To teach is to touch a life, and my mom touched lots of lives, myself included. She dreamed of being a dress designer, made many of her own clothes, and even created her own Florida casual wear resort line called “Doodlebugs by Dode.” Her parents encouraged her to get a teaching degree to fall back on. She took their advice, and never looked back. A home economics graduate, she taught hundreds of teenagers how to cook and sew. In her spare time, after her children were raised, she taught adults, primarily women, the lost arts that she knew so well: embroidery, knitting, and needlepoint. She gave me so many gifts, too many…

The Bridge Builder

“The Bridge Builder” poem has a very special meaning to me having come from a construction family. I’m dedicating it to all my mentors who have lent me a helping hand along the way and to all of  my proteges to whom I have given a hand. It is one of my favorite poems, and it was read at my father’s and grandfather’s memorial services. Contrary to family lore, its author Will Allen Dromgoole was a female journalist and poet from Nashville, Tennessee. She wasn’t a male from Scotland.  An old man, going a lone highway, Came, at the evening, cold and gray, To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide, Through which was flowing a…