In Indiana’s Hamilton Southeastern High School’s media program, students are learning how to craft a compelling message to increase student enrollment, according to an article in K-12 Dive.
David Young, chair of the school’s language arts department, and other Hamilton Southeastern leaders developed a public relations and sports media class for the 3,450-student high school. The class is part of the school’s broader, student-led Southeastern Media Network that includes classes on broadcasting, online news and yearbook.
It’s too early to know if the program will lead to increased student enrollment at Hamilton Southeastern High School, Young says, but it is a key metric the school will be watching.
Student interest in the PR class has boomed, with enrollment jumping from 10 to 150 in the first two years, says Bill DeLisle, the media network’s PR and media advisor. Students learn to tell the stories of their clients — a local organization or the school itself.
The PR goal is not “overhype things that are going on” in the school or “make things look better than they are,” but develop stories “with intentionality and regularity,” DeLisle says.
Students help run the school’s Instagram account and cover school events, such as musical performances or sports events.
PR stories are not intended to make the sports teams look good. They stick to the facts, reporting a loss if that’s the fact.
To enroll in the PR class, students must take a prerequisite in either sports journalism, journalism or digital media, says Young. Students are encouraged to take two of those classes before they sign up for PR.
Leveraging student interest in communications is important because the school lacks the resources or technical capacity to communicate all that goes on, says Associate Principal Stacey Brown.
The Southeastern Media Network gives students real-world experience creating work for public viewing, DeLisle says.
DeLisle used his own professional background in PR to create a framework for a student-run in-house public relations agency that includes:
- Research and competitor analysis. Students work to understand what’s happening with their client – the school or a local organization. What courses are being offered? What events are taking place? Students also analyze other local schools’ communication strategies to learn ways to improve their own.
- Client onboarding meeting. Students meet with clients — administrators, club leaders, coaches or athletic directors — armed with their research and competitor analysis. In these meetings, students try to find stories they weren’t aware of but could be shared.
- Team debriefs and planning. All the information collected from research and client meetings goes into planning students’ coverage and storytelling strategy.
- Production and delivery/publication. This is PR in action. Students create and publish content through Southeastern Media Network’s accounts to reach their audiences.
The PR class is an “incredible resource that is essentially free to us,” so it’s important to not overburden students and to be intentional with their time, says Brown.
At the end of the course, students have built a portfolio of work and give a final formal presentation on what they’ve done for their clients, Young says.
K-12 Dive
