News - Plymouth Girl Wins PR Award
Univeristy College Falmouth press release
Danielle Pearce, Head Girl at St Boniface's Catholic College, Plymouth, is the winner of the UK's first Schools Award for Public Relations Excellence, for her campaign to encourage girls to join St Boniface's co-educational sixth form college.
The nationwide award, launched in 2007 and backed by University College Falmouth's BA (Hons) in Public Relations, recognises exceptional PR talent in a school student from year 12 or 13. It is the only award of its kind in the UK.
"We launched this competition using Facebook to reach over one million sixth formers across the country," said Course Leader for University College Falmouth's BA(Hons) in Public Relations, Jon Cope. "The standard of entries received was outstanding, but Danielle pipped several other highly commended entries to take the prize."
Competition judges - from two of the UK's most successful public relations agencies - praised Danielle for her 'zip and energy'. Cohn & Wolfe Associate Media Director, Stuart Mayell, said: "Danielle's entry included lots of fabulous ideas to raise awareness in a well-written proposal which was beautifully presented."
Danielle's prize includes an Apple iBook laptop and £500 towards her university tuition fees if she applies to, and is accepted for a place on, University College Falmouth's BA(Hons) in Public Relations.
"Teaching was always my career ambition, but recently, I have become much more interested in marketing and public relations, partly driven by my recent experience working with my local paper to promote my school," said eighteen-year-old Danielle. "I will put the laptop to good use for my school coursework and I hope it will also help me to develop my journalistic and creative skills."
Danielle was encouraged to enter the competition by her teacher, Paul Scott,. "Her ability to see the potential in all things makes Danielle an excellent student," said Paul. "Her enthusiasm is contagious, and the students look up to her for inspiration."
Alongside key media production skills such as research, interviewing and reporting techniques, students on BA(Hons) Public Relations at Falmouth develop an understanding of development PR; reputation management; PR for local government as well as global corporations; media law; the political economy; media ethics; human rights and campaign production. What makes the course unique is that it also offers the potential to focus on the practice of media and public relations at governmental and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) level, particularly in the developing world, which greatly expands the range of career opportunities available upon graduation.
In April 2008, University College Falmouth merged with Dartington College of Arts to create a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing.
The merger will pave the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall in 2012, creating a Higher Education institution unique to the South West.
University College Falmouth is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education. The CUC is funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall County Council.
For further information about BA(Hons) Public Relations at University College Falmouth, visit http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/publicrelations, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 213856.