PRSSA STUDENTS EARN TOP AWARDS

On Tuesday, May 24, SCM Public Relations major Jessica Bacher was named the 2016 PRSA NJ Future Public Professional of the Year by the New Jersey chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. 

She joins another school PR major, Cynthia Huasipoma, as major New York metropolitan area award recipients.  In April, Huasipoma became the first Montclair State student ever to win a New York Women In Communication Scholarship.  Both students are also members of the school’s Public Relations Student Society of America chapter.  The honors reflect the growing prestige of the SCM public relations program specifically and the school in general.

Bacher’s award, sponsored by Prudential Financial, in honor of Joseph A. Vecchione, APR, Fellow PRSA, “recognizes Jessica’s understanding of and commitment to the public relations profession.”  She has been invited to speak at the chapter’s annual award banquet on Wednesday, June 15 at the Basking Ridge Country Club.

Both Bacher and Huasipoma share some common traits – seizing opportunities and a predilection for hard work.  Huasipoma, set to be a senior in the fall, is a double major – Public Relations and Art History.  She just finished a PR internship with 3E Communications (a subsidiary of SGW Integrated Marketing Communications).  As part of her scholarship package, Cynthia will be interning with the Interpublic Group in New York.  When that internship ends in July, she will spend August doing an internship with the Metropolitan Opera Guild.  With the start of the fall semester, Huasipoma will be looking to add a fourth internship to her resume.

Bacher has followed a similar path.  In fact, her philosophy is "Life is defined by the opportunities we decide to pursue.”  To this point, Jessica has been interning with Amy Delman Public Relations . This summer, she will be interning with Bristol-Myers Squibb in an program on campus called the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies Green Teams.  Once she begins her senior year in September, she will move over to New York to intern in the marketing department of WABC-TV.

Both Bacher and Huasipoma are executive officers in the school’s PRSSA chapter, which recently finished its fifth and most successful fundraising benefit for Autism New Jersey to date.