Dear PRSA Volunteer Chapter members,

I have noticed with interest the support from the professional community

to assist UT students who want to attend the PRSSA/PRSA conference in
Atlanta.  As a three-time alumnus of the UT College of Communications
(B.S., 1984; M.S., 1991 and Ph.D., 1995), I am happy to see the
professional community in East Tennessee provide support for these
students.
Drs. Dwight Teeter and Jim Crook are longtime mentors and friends to me.

I actually climbed a pyramid in Mexico City with Jim Crook in January
while
attending the AEJMC International Colloquium, where I presented a
research paper.

In addition to serving as UT's professional liaison, I'm sure you will
recall that the PRSA Volunteer Chapter also serves as the professional
chapter for the ETSU PRSSA Student Chapter.

I wanted to update you on our students' progress toward attending the
conference as well.  So far, 15 students have signed up to make the
trip.  They have raised about $1,500 to help defray costs for the
students attending.  Part of these funds were generated by a golf
tournament the students sponsored in the spring.  We estimate that the
trip will cost a  minimum of about $500 for each student ($195 for
registration plus hotel, transportation and food).  This means that the
chapter will be able to provide about $100 for each of the 15 students
who plan to attend, leaving them to pay about $400 each on their own.
This is a difficult sum for most of these students to raise on their
own.

I would like to seek support from the Volunteer PRSA Chapter for these
highly motivated ETSU PR majors, especially from PRSA members in
Northeast Tennessee and the Tri-Cities region.

FYI, we have about 125 undergraduate PR majors and about 20 graduate
students in our PR program.  Our PRSSA Chapter has about 50 members,
including a few
graduate students.  The ETSU Department of Communication is fully
accredited by ACEJMC, the accrediting arm of AEJMC and the same national

body that accredits UT's College of Communications.  In fact, we just
completed re-accreditation this year and enjoyed 100 percent compliance
on all 12 standards.  We are one of approximately 108 accredited
programs
in the nation.

With about 15 years of PR and media experience myself, I know the value
of connecting students to professionals and have accompanied students to

PRSSA national conferences for the past three years.  I have also taken
several students to the Georgia PRSA Real World conference the past two
years.
Two of our students had very successful internships in Atlanta this
summer-
one at the Headline Group and one at Hope-Beckham.

I look forward to hearing from the professional community who I am sure
will want to support these deserving students as well.  Anyone who would
like
to provide support may send it my attention.

Thank you for your consideration.

John M. King, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Public Relations
PRSA Member
East Tennessee State University
College of Art and Sciences
Department of Communication
Box 70667
Johnson City, TN  37614
423-439-4169
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