The Strategic Campaigns in Public Relations 455 class came to an end Wednesday night as four teammates and myself sat with Dr. Julie Henderson at 8:30 p.m. with 21 weeks of work on the table in front of us.

A combination of 14 weeks of research on the U.S. Census and seven weeks of planning, implementing and evaluating a REAL public relations campaign. What an experience.

Word of advice for UW Oshkosh students considering a career in communications: Take the campaigns class. It's a lot of work, but no other class will give you the opportunity to plan and execute a real campaign.

This is the first time in my college career I can honestly say: working with a team was an excellent experience. I credit this to the attitude of everyone on our team including Dr. Henderson.

I don’t think there was an hour that went by without a laugh and, at the same time, we knew what had to get done and we made it happen. I could only hope to work with such a great team as I enter the working world. 

For all those terrible group and team projects, this one makes me truly appreciate the value of collaboration, sharing ideas and working toward a difficult common goal.

Now I’m crossing my fingers that on April 12 we’ll be getting a phone call and a ticket to Washington, D.C., signifying that we made the top three in the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) National Bateman competition.

57 days.