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Until last fall,
Northern Arizona University senior Kiku Hartman had
no idea what she wanted to do in the public
relations field after graduation.
An international relations class led by NAU
Assistant Professor of Public Relations Astrid Sheil
changed that.
Hartman and her 11 classmates took on the Patriot
Union of Kurdistan as a client and created PR
materials for the PUK to use in the United States.
"It was amazing. It was a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity that we were so lucky to have come
along," said Hartman, who now wants to work in the
international relations field after she graduates in
May.
The students developed a media database for U.S.
cities with large Kurdish populations for
distribution of press releases, designed and
produced brochures, "backgrounders" and fact sheets
for a media kit and recommended ways to revamp the
PUK's Web site (www.puk.org). They presented their
work to Qubad Talabany, executive director of
Kurdistan, and his staff in Washington, D.C. late
last fall.
The presentation was the culmination of five months
of work, which Sheil said would have cost $50,000 if
completed by an agency. Students received three or
six credits, depending on whether they enrolled in
both of the classes that saw the project to
completion.
Hartman said it was "worth not getting paid with
money because we got paid in every other way
imaginable."
A REQUEST FOR HELP
Sheil, whose background is in international
relations, secured the project for her class through
a friend who works for the PUK in Washington, D.C.
Justyna Bartkiewicz, special assistant for research
and public diplomacy for the PUK, has a background
in political science. Part of her job is to
disseminate information about Kurds on Capitol Hill
and to Washington think tanks, Sheil said.
"She flat out asked, 'Can you help me?'," Sheil
said.
In a phone interview, Bartkiewicz said the materials
the students created have proved "very helpful" to
her.
"I was surprised to see how seriously they took [the
project] and really went deep into the field to look
for information," she said. "I hope to see them
again one day and just show them the outcome of
their own work."
Bartkiewicz said she hopes to develop an ongoing
internship program with NAU students.
"This is exactly the kind of people we'd like to see
in our office," she said.
RECOMMENDATIONS
BECOME REALITY
Hartman said she and the other students faced dead
ends, such as Web sites that didn't work, as they
researched the PUK. They researched the history and
statistics of the PUK in order to distribute
accurate information on the materials they created.
"I was really so happy to see the students putting
so much heart in it and having so much passion for
the project," Bartkiewicz said.
The students discovered the largest concentrations
of Kurds in the U.S. are in Nashville; San Diego;
Detroit; Deerborn, Mich.; and northern Virginia. A
database of media contacts in those cities was
created, and the legislators who oversee those areas
are linked to each in the database.
If Bartkiewicz has information to share, now she has
a link to the media outlets that can reach the
Kurdish populations in the U.S., Sheil said. The
students also provided templates --which give the
PUK a consistent look-- of how to write press
releases and feature stories so Bartkiewicz can
complete those tasks more easily. Students also
assembled a database of experts on Kurdish issues
who are available to speak to the media. Their
target audiences for the materials they created were
Congress members, Kurds living in the U.S. and the
media.
"We wanted to position the PUK as the source of
correct information on Kurds," Sheil said.
All the student-created materials were sent to
Baghdad for final approval by Jalal Talabani,
president of Iraq.
AN INTERDISCIPLINARY
APPROACH
Kathy Cruz-Uribe, dean of the College of Social and
Behavioral Sciences at NAU, helped attain funding
for the students' trip to Washington, D.C. Cruz-Uribe
wants to offer more interdisciplinary classes,
combining such subjects as PR and political science
in the classroom.
"Really the problems of the world are
interdisciplinary," she said.
All 12 students traveled to D.C. for the
presentation, and it was the first time any of them
had been to Capitol Hill. The group got a 90-minute
briefing with the acting ambassador of Iraq, Faiz
al-Gailani, at the Iraq embassy.
His stories about life under Saddam Hussein were
fascinating, Sheil said. Among the things the group
learned from him are that Iraq's government is more
secular than it is religious, and the idea that
Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds don't get along is untrue.
There is a lot of intermarriage, she said.
"He basically changed most of our opinions about the
war," Sheil said. Not to pro-war but to
pro-stay-the-course to help the Iraqi middle class
assume power.
They were supposed to get only 10 minutes with him
and felt fortunate to get more time.
PROJECT LEADS TO JOBS
Sheil said she allowed the students to struggle with
their work because that's when they learn.
"If she had given us all the answers, we wouldn't
have learned as much," Hartman said.
The students had a real client, a real deadline and
learned to work like an agency, Hartman said.
While in Washington, the group from NAU spent almost
an entire day with U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi,
R-Flagstaff, who graduated from NAU.
After returning to Flagstaff, six students founded
Student International Public Relations Agency of NAU,
a student organization that will handle projects
like this in the future. Future projects won't yield
class credit, Sheil said.
One graduate who participated in this project
donated money to help the organization get started.
Others pledge to help through their jobs and
contacts on Capitol Hill or around the country.
"Students are helping each other because they know
what they got out of it," Sheil said.
Three of the class members, who graduated in
December, got jobs as a result of this project, she
said. Hartman is considering an internship offer
with the PUK in Washington, D.C.
"My favorite part of this is students came back
different people. They came back knowing if they
want to play in the big leagues, they can," Sheil
said.
Annie Braun can be reached at abraun@azdailysun.com
or 556-2250
www.azdailysun.com
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