Public Relations (PR) is the sector of business where it is the responsibility of the person to promote the positive image of a product, service
or organization. If successful, by using certain PR activities and tools, the result can affect your business’s reputation, influence potential customers as well as impact profitability. These principles and practices also apply to educational institutions. City University of Seattle (CU) here in Pravets is no exception.
This term (Winter '09) there is a visiting faculty member who is an American ex-pat who usually teaches in Trencin, Slovakia, but is here to specifically bring her expertise in the area of PR to the BSBA students at CU in Bulgaria. Ms. Norka Shedlock has successfully worked in the field of PR for over 25 years. She is a native of Pennsylvania in USA but has lived and worked in Boston, Massachusetts and Seattle, Washington, USA. She also voted for Barrack Obama in the 2009 US Presidential elections.
Realizing that she is one of a few American in Pravets and has the responsibility to teach PR, she combined these facts into an inauguration “PR story” for her CU students. Students participated in a photo shoot (see photo above) as well as wrote messages to the new world leader. Both the photo and the wishes were placed onto the CNN news segment “iReports” as part of this international news source’s Inauguration Day PR efforts to get feedback from the national and international communities. The student messages are included below:
“We wish you good luck in your career as an American President and one of the world leaders.” Nevena Vasileva
“I wish Obama would pay more attention to internal and development policies than warfare and external policies.” Anthony Karasavov
“Take the greatest from the past, mix it with creativity, and apply the mixture to the future.” Jwan Zada
“Unite America! Unite the World!” Victoria Dancheva
“I wish Obama a successful mandate, May Americans’ wishes for change come true.” Diyana Karayleva
“The best of luck to the 44th President of the USA on his path to building a better future for all of us.” Alexandros Kotzegien
“It’s time for a change! Let this period be remembered as the light after the dark, the good after the bad. Let us all hope for a brighter future. Good luck! Mr. President!” Georgi Radev
“Think globally, not only of the West.” Kristina Tomova
“Let’s hope that under your Democratic Presidency, Mr. Obama that the USA will take a new turn and will contribute to the stability on the international scene.” Veneta Tuleva
And Alexander Velinov composed this letter:
“Dear Mr. President:
We are witnessing something very unusual, and something very special. It is for the first time in a ling while that people from different countries, different races, different religions, different cultures and different sexual orientation are putting their differences aside and are standing unites, as one, in the name of something big, something important. Actually, this very important thing is you. But not you as a person, but you as the ideals and goals that you represent. The reason why so many people, who are so different, are thinking as one is because they need something. They need change! We need change. We need to change the way we think and they way we act. We need to change the way we treat each other. We need understanding, we need respect, we need tolerance, we need fairness, and we need love. But most of all we need hope—hope in the future, hope that everything will be better!
So many people have laid their hopes on you, it is your greatest responsibility to not fail them and let them down. My hope is you realize this, and you will truly represent what you stand for, even though it is not easy. And in the end, just one more thing—soft and smart power is ALWAYS, IN ALL CASES, better than hard power. We have seen for the last eight years what hard power is capable of. Let’s not continue it.”
Ms. Shedlock added her own conclusion: “As American ex-pat teaching university students abroad, I humbly represent you and our nation today in a sometimes forgotten part of the world, yet my students today gladly helped me send these wishes from afar.”
Norka Shedlock /PR Instructor/
