2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

Agency Operations: Empowering Students with Knowledge of Industry Practices
Margaret Ritsch, APR
Texas Christian University
m.c.ritsch@tcu.edu
Abstract
This paper will share topics and approaches for a new academic course at TCU called ―Agency
Operations.‖ The course is designed to enrich students‘ internships at Roxo, a new student
agency for strategic communications, and is required of all the agency‘s interns. A task force that
created the plan for the agency thought a supplemental academic course would solidify a focus
on learning and a connection to the curriculum. The course was first offered during the 2012
spring semester and is currently underway in the fall semester with an enrollment of 12 students,
primarily seniors. There will be 18 students in the spring.
The one-hour weekly class gives a birds-eye view of the rapidly evolving agency industry and an
on-the-ground examination of leading agencies in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Agency
business practices are also introduced so that the students interested in an agency career are
empowered with an understanding of billable time, its relationship to salary, and the importance
of showing results. The agency business is an extremely competitive industry. We want our
graduates who may soon enter the industry to be aware of agency operations so they are
equipped to deal with the pressures and survive and do well in their first jobs. Students learn to
prepare and give Keynote presentations, estimate the cost of projects, work in teams, and
understand the high expectations of the workplace – all very important in the strategic
communication profession regardless of the business/employer setting.
Course topics
The Agency Operations course has a syllabus with some flexibility to shift topics depending
upon the gaps in the students‘ knowledge and skills. For example, it is one thing to study
strategic planning in a PR principles class taken during the sophomore year. It is another thing,
as a senior, to have to put together a strategic communications plan and present it to a client in
three weeks. All of a sudden there is more than a grade at stake.
In addition to a strategic planning refresher, course topics include:
o Team-building based on strengths discovered in the StrengthsFinder assessment
o A competitive analysis of DFW agencies, followed by team presentations
o Defining Roxo‘s mission, vision and purpose
o The art of the presentation
o Estimates, proposals and contracts, with role-playing and a team-based project
o Evaluation: showing results that matter
We began the semester with a team-building workshop focused on strengths: the students‘ top
five innate talents or strengths as shown on the Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment. Students
reflect on their own strengths, learn the strengths of their teammates, and anticipate where
weaknesses or problems could surface in their teams and how they might compensate.
The course also provides the chance for students to sharpen their knowledge and abilities in
interactive strategy, analytics, social media and SEO. A new partnership with HootSuite
University, the higher education outreach of the social media management service, provides
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