Storyworks at the Story Arts Centre is a one-of-a-kind course that allows students to earn industry experience before graduation. Sarah Lasagna, a post-graduate student in the Public Relations - Corporate Communications program shares her experience with Storyworks.
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In January, I started the post-graduate Public Relations and Corporate Communications program offered at the Story Arts Centre. Besides receiving hands-on learning through courses taught by industry professionals, we also complete Storyworks. This unique course provides students like me the opportunity to gain industry experience while completing our studies.
For our Storyworks client, we partnered with Muskoka Lodge Maple Syrup, where we were tasked with developing a unique communications campaign from start to finish. Using maple syrup was especially intriguing since earlier this year, many of our classmates new to Canada, tried real, pure maple syrup for the very first time, inspiring our campaign.
We utilized the help of our classmates, who represented more than 12 countries and were unable to return home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were excited to participate by cooking their favourite hometown dish infused with maple syrup instead of traditional sweeteners like sugar or honey. As the team’s designer, I compiled the student submitted recipes, edited and formatted them into a cookbook, which is now available for download!
We also partnered with public relations students at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca in Spain, where they provided insights into the Spanish maple syrup market and suggested traditional recipes for the campaign. To promote our cookbook, we collaborated with one of our instructors, Paolo Zinatelli, who graciously assisted us with a cooking demonstration on Instagram Live. Additionally, we were able to submit posts to Centennial College’s social media, allowing us to garner a greater reach. We developed captions for social media such as Instagram posts for both Muskoka Lodge Maple Syrup and Centennial College, TikTok videos, tweets, and Facebook posts.
Under the guidance of instructor Laurie Hall, who has an agency background and has taught the course for many years, we practiced another essential skill – media relations, where we authored a news release, submitted it to a monitoring service and pitched and corresponded with media.
Despite a pandemic, hands-on learning is still proven to yield better results in applying learned knowledge. Storyworks is an invaluable experience – an innovative class with a progressive structure that prepares us for our field placement by providing us contacts, pieces for our portfolio and valuable industry experience.