The Seton Hall chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) is participating in the national Bateman Case Study Competition.
Every year, PRSSA, a pre-professional organization for students interested in public relations/communications fields as well as related job and networking opportunities, holds the Bateman Case Study Competition, a premier national competition that allows students to apply their internship experience and what they learn in the classroom to create a public relations campaign for a national client, according to PRSSA’s website.
Members of Seton Hall's team include senior public relations majors Madeline Fetter, Samantha Paradise, Michele Modugno and junior Jiaqi Liu. The team is advised by Kathryn Lancioni, a public relations professor at the College of Communications and the Arts.
Modugno said this is her first time participating in the competition.
“I just knew I wanted to do it because I had seen a few of the older students doing it from when they were from my classes,” Modugno said. “I thought it seemed like a great experience and something I wanted to do before I left Seton Hall.”
The competition's sponsor, the Lymphoma Research Foundation, is a nonprofit focused on eradicating the most common type of blood cancer by funding innovative research and helping the lymphoma community through education programs, outreach initiatives and patient services, according to PRSSA’s website.
Teams will research, plan and implement a comprehensive campaign raising awareness of adolescent and young adult lymphoma on campus and in the local community. Additionally, teams should communicate the foundation's goal of eradicating lymphoma through educating the adolescent and young adult community.
Judges will evaluate each project on how well teams research and strategize to execute their campaign, the campaign’s results and the creativity of the campaign to engage the lymphoma adolescent and young adult community, according to PRSSA’s website.
There is also a limited budget of $300 that each team is allowed to spend, while in-kind donations should not exceed $1,000, according to the competition’s guidelines. Modugno said her team had used all of their budget, mostly spent on ribbons, gift cards and other office materials.
The team, which officially started their campaign on Feb. 7, created a social media challenge on Instagram and TikTok @lymphomacommunity_shu to spread awareness about lymphoma to the Seton Hall community.
To participate in the challenge, students were asked to wear something red or a red ribbon and post a picture to be entered into a raffle to win a gift card to a South Orange restaurant of their choice. Modugno said the team gave out a $50 gift card to the winner.
Students could also sign a pledge located on the team’s social media page promising to spread awareness about lymphoma on Seton Hall’s campus. Modugno said the team held the same raffle at the Pirates’ men's basketball game March 2nd at the Prudential Center.
The team is also using the slogan, “Pirates against Lymphoma,” along with infographics on their social media pages to educate and spread awareness about lymphoma.
Modugno said the team has held in-person events, including setting up tables throughout campus to distribute educational material about lymphoma.
While there isn’t a specific timeframe for the research and planning stages, the implementation phase must occur between February and early March. The implementation phase includes any creation of special events, outreach initiatives and websites.
Entries are due in late March and finalists are selected in April. Finalists will present their work to a panel of judges in May and winning teams will be recognized at PRSSA's International Conference, according to the competition’s timeline. Modugno said the team officially ended their campaign on March 11.
“I think we’re beyond the mentality of just wanting to win,” Liu said. “I feel like that the goal has definitely changed throughout the campaign to really educate people, so they know what lymphoma is.”
