Reflective Piece

I came into Centennial’s Corporate Communications and Public Relations program a confused individual. I had dropped out of Seneca’s program in September, scared off by my rough estimate of 40+ presentations by the end of the year. I had entered that program convinced that writing would be the key to success in those classes, and as an extension, public relations itself. When I saw the talent of most of my classmates in terms of being able to stand up in front of a group of strangers and deliver a seemingly well-organized speech on the spot, I began to wonder if I had made the right choice. I left the program a couple days before the cut-off deadline (regrettably leaving behind a great group of classmates), and planned to transfer over to Centennial for the semester. Unfortunately, I broke my ankle the next day and was put out of commission until mid-November. When I healed, I put in a last-minute push to begin the winter semester at Centennial, and managed to work things out. Regardless, going in to January 2010, I no longer had any true idea what I was getting into.

While I was a little hesitant walking in to what we now affectionately refer to as “Bruce’s class” that first day, I was immediately teamed up with a couple of classmates who would become two of my closest friends by the end of the year: Stephen D’Angelo and Kim Foster. By the end of the second week, most of the class was pretty tight and it became easier to just focus on picking up the information we were receiving with each passing lesson.

While we were assigned presentations in various classes, I felt comfortable with the balance between writing, speaking, social media, event management and the like, and as the early months went by I began to feel as if I had made the right decision in pursuing CC+PR as a future. Writing played just as important a role as my ability to deliver a memorized speech, and I began to feel more comfortable in all facets of the program. With this balance in mind, my perception on what was truly required for success in the industry changed for the better.

Another thing I had been told by friends when they asked what program I was in was that I would forever be known as a “spin doctor.” I hated the idea of serving as the guy in the company looked to for lies and propaganda, and I know that many of my classmates felt the same. It was with a relief that we were immediately told that our role was to maintain honesty and integrity within our organizations, and perhaps my favourite quote of the year was when we were told that we are to “serve as the conscience of an organization.” If I wanted any perception that I had when entering the program in January to be altered, it was that one. Going out into the industry finally, I am ecstatic that it has.

As many of my talented classmates begin to head off to their internships in just over a week, I was fortunate enough to be hired in May as a Technical Communications Specialist at Bombardier Aerospace, where I had interned for three and a half years during my time in university. While I was even more nervous starting this job than I was entering Centennial, the fact that I now had a true semblance of what the industry required made the transition to working life a lot more comfortable. I keep some of my school textbooks at my desk in my office, and have called upon the knowledge that I have picked up this year more times than I can count.

I walked through the door of “Bruce’s class” in January with a distorted perception of what public relations truly was. I will walk out next Friday confident that I learned so much more than I ever expected to, and gained that perception back. I have Centennial’s CCPR program, its faculty, and hopefully some lifelong friends to thank for that.