Explore UT Gives Kids a Chance to Explore PR

By Lauren Kahn, senior, public relations

Known as the biggest open house in Texas, Explore UT gives kids, teachers and families a chance to experience all that The University of Texas at Austin has to offer.

On Saturday, March 5, the Public Relations program hosted a fun, interactive workshop called "The Arts and Crafts of PR Messaging" to introduce kids to the practice of public relations.

“Explore UT is a great way to stay in touch with the little people…by that I mean 6 to 12 year olds,” said public relations lecturer Dave Junker, who introduced the session.

The workshop was led by Texas Tower PR, the only student-run public relations firm at UT-Austin. “Teaching kids about PR is important because it is something they could go into in the future,” said Tower PR coordinator Yolanda Borrego. “I didn’t know about it until I was a junior in high school."

More than 50 children, parents and teachers attended the workshop in which children designed their own pamphlets and created a script for a public service announcement to promote something they care about.  

To give children a concrete example of how to promote a cause, members of Tower explained how they help their client Candlelight Ranch publicize its summer camps for children with special needs. 

Tower PR member Ana Vargas filmed the children reading their public service announcements. She said she was impressed with their scripts and familiarity with new media.

“The first thing [a young female participant] did was take out her iPhone and snapped a picture of the background behind her,” said Vargas. “She probably Tweeted it.”

Tower members were also impressed with the topics students chose, and the passion and knowledge they displayed.

Many kids felt strongly about protecting the environment and created messages to help prevent littering, conserve fossil fuels and use alternative energy. One older student was concerned with the high rate of teen pregnancy at her high school and created a pamphlet to build awareness about it.

"When kids discover that the messages they're exposed to all the time are created by someone, it can be empowering," Junker said. "They realize that they can work for something they're really interested in, whether it's a heavy social issue or Longhorn football."