From left, Megan Ash, Allie Cable, Megan Jafari, and Katelyn Tresh saying, “Home is a warm cup of chili,” at the Fun Run and Chili Cook-off.
The Lee University Bateman Team’s statewide campaign for Home Matters received an honorable mention as a part of the Public Relations Student Society of America’s National Bateman Competition. The team, named “423 PR,” consisted of senior public relations majors Megan Ash, Allie Cable, Megan Jafari and Katelyn Tresh.
PRSSA holds the Bateman Team Competition every year. It is a competition in which approximately 70 universities and colleges select four or five students to participate to create a complete public relations campaign for a national client. The teams are required to research, plan, implement and evaluate their campaign during the school year, and turn in their submission to national PRSSA for judging. The challenge is that every team has only the month of February to implement their campaign.
This year, the national client was Home Matters, a coast-to-coast coalition that seeks to partner with organizations that strive to promote the five foundations of a home, which are Health, Education, Stable Economy, Individual Success and Public Safety.
There have been nine Bateman teams from Lee since 2003 with one team winning a 4th place nationally and five receiving Honorable Mentions.
"I am so proud to be awarded the fifth honorable mention in Lee’s history," Ms. Jafari said. “Our team worked extremely hard to implement a professional, successful campaign, and I’m so glad the judges recognized that.”
The Lee team held a statewide public relations campaign titled “Be a Neighbor. Be a Volunteer. Be Tennessee.” They partnered with all five existing Home Matters affiliates in the state of Tennessee and obtained six more as a result of the campaign. This raised organizational Home Matters partnerships in Tennessee by 120 percent.
The affiliates in Tennessee now include Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise in Chattanooga; Knox Housing Partnership and Restoration House in Knoxville; Affordable Housing Resources and How’s Nashville in Nashville; United Housing, Inc. in Memphis; Eastern Eight Community Development Corporation in Johnson City; Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland; Impact Cleveland; Family Promise of Bradley County; and Triple E Construction in Cleveland.
Three major events were held throughout the state of Tennessee as a part of this awareness campaign. The launch took place at the Capitol building in Nashville, a Fun Run and Chili Cook-off was held in Cleveland, and a Home Matters luncheon was hosted by the team at Knox Housing Partnership. These events, along with a statewide social media contest and an informational branding presentation for all of the affiliates, made up the campaign that brought Lee’s Bateman Team an honorable mention.
“The PRSSA Bateman Team national campaign is the most prestigious and challenging competition for public relations majors,” said Dr. Patty Silverman, the Lee University public relations program coordinator and the PRSSA co-advisor and internship coordinator. “Our students continue to make their mark nationally as outstanding public relations majors, competing with the top universities across the nation. I am so proud of this year’s team and their statewide campaign for Home Matters.”
The Lee University Public Relations program is designed to train students interested in professional or academic work in the area of corporate, nonprofit or agency PR. There are currently 118 PR majors, making it one of the largest and fastest growing majors in Lee’s Communication Arts Department. In fall 2011, the program earned international accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America, receiving a Certification in Education for Public Relations. Lee became the first Christian university to receive this certification. Approximately 40 schools internationally have been awarded CEPR.
For more information about the Bateman Team or the PR program at Lee University, please contact Dr. Silverman at psilverman@leeuniversity.edu.
Home Matters® is a national movement uniting America around Home. For more information, visit www.HomeMattersAmerica.com.
From left, Katelyn Tresh, Allie Cable, Megan Ash and Megan Jafari at the campaign launch in Nashville.