Try @ TXST

Andrea Hernandez:
Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea Hernandez and you're watching Try @ TXST. Today I'm here with PRSSA Andrea Estela Pabon. How are you, Andrea?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
I'm good. How are you?

Andrea Hernandez:
I'm doing really good. So can you start us off by just introducing yourself, your major, and your role within Texas State PRSSA?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah. So like you said, I'm Andrea Estela Pabon. I'm currently a senior here at Texas State pursuing a dual degree in public relations, business management. And then I have a minor in mass comm. I'm currently president for PRSSA.

Andrea Hernandez:
What does PRSSA stand for?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Public Relations Student Society of America.

Andrea Hernandez:
That's awesome. So I know that you didn't originally start as a public relations major, right?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah.

Andrea Hernandez:
Could you tell us a little bit about that and that transition?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
For sure, yeah. So I came into Texas State as an industrial engineering degree. My two oldest brothers are engineers, so I was like, "Let me follow in their footsteps." I took one engineering chem class. I absolutely hated it. But I'd always loved writing, so I spent a semester kind of freaking out being like, "Okay, I need to find another major to do."
My mom's my bestie, so she sat down with me and she was like, "Okay, let's look through Texas State majors." I found PR. I was a bit hesitant at first. I was like, "I don't know if this is the thing." I took Intro to Public Relations with Professor Villagran and from there on he was like, "Hey, so you get extra credit if you go to this one organizational meeting, pull up." So I was like, "Okay, let me go get this extra credit." And I went to the first meeting. I fell in love and here we are like four and a half years later.

Andrea Hernandez:
That's awesome. I had Paul Villagran too, and he was an amazing professor.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
He's awesome. We love him.

Andrea Hernandez:
He's so cool. I almost joined PRSSA because of him, but had other things to do.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Girl, come on. Come on.

Andrea Hernandez:
Was there a specific moment where you realized that public relations felt right to you?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yes and no. I definitely think Villagran was kind of the heavy push of knowing PR was my thing. When I first thought about PR, it was all press releases and writing, but taking that Intro to PR class, he was like, "There's this huge umbrella and you can really do anything in it." So I was like, "Okay, this has so many opportunities." Public relations, yes, it's that specific title, but it can go into marketing, journalism, all of the things. So I definitely, I think just his Intro to PR class drew me in and I've been loving it ever since.

Andrea Hernandez:
You mentioned that PR is a huge umbrella. Could you go dive into that a little bit more about what PR really is, what it kind of means?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah, I feel like we always make jokes in our organization that it's one of the majors that your parents are like, "I don't really know what you do, but you're doing it, so it's okay." But yeah, that umbrella, like I said, it's all comms very much. We're technically under the marketing realm sometimes, but I've talked to professionals that do internal communications PR, marketing PR, brand image PR. So wherever you want to go, whatever industry, whether it's in-house agency, nonprofit, in PR, you'll find a way to make it work, so yeah.

Andrea Hernandez:
So how did you go from first attending a meeting to becoming more involved in leadership? So how did that transition to you becoming president of PRSSA?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah, I mean, it's like I said earlier, it's been like four and a half years. So I would say that first semester when I came to Texas State and I took Paul's Intro to PR class, from there, we do two trips. We do a fall trip and a spring trip. I had been a little bit late to join to go on the first fall trip that they go to, which is ICON. It's this international conference that PRSSA national hosts.
With our spring trip, he was like, "This is a really good opportunity to go out." I think the first one that I went to was Dallas. So he was like, "We basically go to a bunch of different companies, organizations, all that stuff." And right around that time, they were also doing applications for e-board. So I got to go on this trip. I got to know the e-board, asked them a ton of questions of like, "What do you do day-to-day?"
And I got really close to the vice president of communications. His name is Carson Jones. I guess after that fall, I became vice president of communications. He was president at the time. And then from then on I just ... No position, '23 to '24. VP of comm again '24-'25, and now president in '25-'26.

Andrea Hernandez:
Awesome. Did you know that when you joined PRSSA, you kind of wanted to be part of the e-board? Also, for those that don't know, what is e-board?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah, so our e-board is basically our leadership board, our executive board. So right now we have seven positions. Now this year we're adding two more just to disperse some tasks and things like that.
But no, going into it, I was just kind of like, "This is ..." I'd never joined an org on campus before. Whenever I went on spring trip and they kind of started talking about what they do and what decisions they make, I was like, "Wait, this is kind of cool to get that leadership experience."
And PRSSA is all about professional development and networking and all that stuff, so being able to ... I know the e-board at the time when I went on spring trip, they were very encouraging of like, "You seem like you're very committed, you're one of the members that comes to all of our meetings. We would love for you to be involved in the decision making process." And coming from that member perspective of like, okay, these are the decisions that the e-board is making now, what can I do to enhance or add to that was kind of one of those main pushes of like, "I want to do workshops and I want to do socials and I want to do this guest speaker." So that kind of led me into being on e-board.

Andrea Hernandez:
That's amazing. It's also a great thing to add on your resume.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
True. Yeah, yeah.

Andrea Hernandez:
So that's incredible. How is PRSSA different from just being in your PR classes or doing coursework?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Doing your regular classes, that sets up the foundation. You're learning how to do tasks. But PRSSA, we kind of take a step back from that and focus more on that professional development and networking.
So a lot of the time we focus on guest speakers. We bring in guest speakers on campus every other Wednesday and we get to have a very, very transparent conversation with them about how they got to where they are today, what their day-to-day is, what's the best part of their job, what's the worst part of their job. We like to get that realism just so people feel prepared for the future. We're all bound to graduate someday, so kind of making sure that everybody feels, or at least all of our members feel as confident and as comfortable stepping into that real world.
A lot of the time, most of the professionals that we bring onto campus, they're so willing to help. Anytime they leave, they're like, "I'm leaving you my phone number. I'm leaving you my email. If you need anything, by all means." So it's definitely different in the sense of, yes, in class you're learning the foundation. But with PRSSA, you're taking that step back and you're meeting the people that are in the jobs that we will hold one day and kind of seeing like, okay, they said they didn't really love this project. I don't know if I want to go into that side of PR. So kind of learning from other people's experiences.

Andrea Hernandez:
Right. So it gives you a little taste of what's really out there once you graduate.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Exactly. Yeah.

Andrea Hernandez:
Awesome, awesome. And what was your first PRSSA meeting like, if you could tell us about that?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Ooh. Okay, I'll go outside of just the intro meeting because I feel like that was just info sharing, getting to know members. But the first actual guest speaker that I remember that came onto campus was Blue Bell Ice Cream. And at the time, it was 2021 and they were going through that huge crisis where there was people licking their ice cream tubs and putting them back on the shelves, which was not a great experience.
But the two guest speakers that came and talked to us, they were so transparent and they were like, "These things happen. We have to respond." And they had a very transparent conversation about that crisis comms and how they dealt with that, what their response was. And I was like, "Whoa, I didn't know you could just talk to professionals like this and ask them what their steps were, were they anxious, how they eased themselves."
So that was definitely an experience of, I thought we would have to be all like, "Okay, I can only ask the modest questions." Which we stick to the professionalism, but it was very refreshing to be able to talk to them like that and get their insight of like, "Yeah, we would've never known this was going to happen. What is this trend that's going on? And people are licking our ice cream." We were like, "It is a little crazy, but y'all are handling it well."
So yeah, definitely start off with Blue Bell. I was like, "Oh my gosh." And they're going through mid-crisis. I was like, "This is so cool." After that, we've had different guest speakers, agency, all that stuff. So that was a banger to start off with. I was like, "This is an org. I love it." Yeah.

Andrea Hernandez:
Yeah, definitely. That's really awesome that you guys got to speak to Blue Bell. I kind of want to go back to the trips that you had briefly mentioned. I know you said something about Dallas. What other trips ... Where do y'all go?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
One of the trips is fully organized by us and the other one isn't. So I'll start off with the one that isn't. It's called ICON, which is our PRSSA National Conference, International Conference, because basically the national portion of PRSSA and then PRSA, which PRSA is Public Relations Society of America. That's professionals that are fully in the field and they have their own professional organization where they do their own meetings. We're lucky enough that our parent chapter, PRSA Austin, invites us for free to all of their events. So ICON is fully organized by that national committee.
And basically they invite every single PRSSA chapter, every single PRSA chapter, public relations professionals in the nation. And basically, for a weekend, go to workshops, go to different guest speaker lectures, and you get to meet and go to all these lectures with different professionals, which is great because it's just like you're in a hotel full of professionals that may have your job in the future, so you get to network with them for four to five days straight.
With ICON, I went with them four times. The first one I went to was Dallas, second was Nashville, third Chicago. And I actually got to be a speaker for that one. I was the first student here at Texas State that got to be an actual speaker at that one. So that was pretty cool.

Andrea Hernandez:
That's awesome.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah. And then the one that I recently went to in October was Washington. So that's ICON, that's our fall trip.
And then our spring trip is fully organized by our chapter. I'm 99% sure we're one of the only PRSSA chapters that actually hosts one every single year, which is really cool because that's one of the awards that we win basically every year of involvement. But that one, we basically do the same thing that we do on a local level, but obviously in other cities. So we'll do outreach to different organizations and their PR teams and be like, "Hey, we're a group of students. Can we come and talk to you?" Tour, all of that stuff and have those kind of transparent conversations with the actual PR team. After that, we went to Chicago and then we're going to New York in April this year, so that's exciting.

Andrea Hernandez:
Wow, so you guys are well traveled then.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah. I feel like I'm racking up cities through PRSSA, so that's great.

Andrea Hernandez:
Yes. And that LinkedIn must go crazy, girl.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
I try. I try.

Andrea Hernandez:
So tell me a little bit about how you guys are nationally recognized and what sets it apart from other organizations on campus?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah. So we normally win, I believe two of our national accredited awards, one of them being Pacesetter, which basically we turn in this doc saying all the things that we did. And I feel like it's pretty self-explanatory. It's just we're setting the pace for other chapters. So when we go to different conferences, sometimes they'll pull the presidents out and be like, "Okay, how are you achieving these events and things like that? What resources can you give to other PRSSA chapters for them to grow?"
On the national level though, I feel like whenever, every single ICON, we've had a Texas State member attend. I think whenever we went to Dallas, there was like 22 of us because we just drove. This past year, whenever we went to Washington, there was six of us.
So we try to stay involved. We have a couple connections with the national committee. So it's always nice that they're there to support and give us any opportunities as a local org to be able to be in attendance and stay involved with them, so yeah.

Andrea Hernandez:
Absolutely. So nationally recognized, does that mean, I guess do y'all get first place? Do y'all compete or-

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Not exactly. Well, competitiveness, yes, but we get shout-outs at ICON and things like that. There's always a little luncheon or something like that, and they'll be like, "Oh, here are some awards," or shout-outs of like, "Texas State won Pacesetter," and things like that.
Or they'll send us ... The other one that I forgot to mention was Star Chapter. And we basically, they give us a list of requirements and they give us like 11. And they're like, "If you hit eight of these, you'll be recognized as a Star Chapter." So we get posted on their Instagram, they send us a certificate, they tag us on their LinkedIn and stuff like that. And I'm trying to get our e-board to organize or buy some little templates or something so we can put them on our office wall, share our pride.

Andrea Hernandez:
On the LinkedIn. Yeah.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Exactly. Yeah, so those are the two that go more national recognized. And yeah, we just get little shout-outs and it's always nice because it's like, okay, we're putting in the effort.

Andrea Hernandez:
Congrats. That's really awesome.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Thank you, thank you.

Andrea Hernandez:
And if someone is listening and is curious about joining PRSSA, what would you say to encourage them to come and try out a meeting?

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah. I would say definitely check out our Instagram @TXSTPRSSA. Sorry for the plug, but got to be done. We have our Linktree, which has our GroupMe, our X, our LinkedIn and our Instagram. I would say definitely join our GroupMe because we do the most updates there, but come check out a meeting. It's every other Wednesday, 5:00 to 6:20. Come check us out whenever, we welcome any major. But I would say definitely get most of the info from the Linktree on our Instagram. And from there, send us a message. We'll let you know all the info that you need to join. And if you come to one of our meetings and you love it, sign up then and there.

Andrea Hernandez:
Perfect. Thank you so much, Andrea. It sounds like PRSSA is such a great way to just kickstart your professional journey while you're in college.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
We try our best to make it that way, so hopefully. Crossing our fingers our members agree that we're doing all the things to make them successful, so yeah.

Andrea Hernandez:
I love that. Thank you so much.

Andrea Estela Pabon:
Yeah, thank you for having me.

MUSIC:
When you wake up in the evening.
Love left an empty space.