PRSSA Students Jessica Bacher and Cynthia Huasipoma Preparing for Leadership Roles

On 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.  Earlier, 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 was 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, a senior in the fall, is a double major – Public Relations and Art History.  As part of her WIKI scholarship package, she completed a summer PR internship with Weber Shandwick, and, with the little free time she has, she is developing transmedia projects for the Metropolitan Opera Guild.

Bacher has followed a similar path.  In fact, her philosophy is "Life is defined by the opportunities we decide to pursue.”  Last year, Jessica interned with Amy Delman Public Relations. This past summer, she interned with Bristol-Myers Squibb in a program on campus called the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies Green Teams.  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, this past April, finished its fifth and most successful fundraising benefit for Autism New Jersey to date.