Reflections and Retrospects

By Dylan Hope, 1910 PR Associate

Before I get into my reflection fully, I want to take a minute to admit that I came into this class with absolutely zero ideas or expectations about it. I had never heard about it from anyone on campus, nor was it ever presented as an option to take if I needed credits to graduate.

So now, after spending an entire semester in 1910 PR, I want to get into my thoughts and reflections about this course, and things that I have learned or struggled with.

Headshot of Dylan Hope used for the 1910 PR spring 2026 staff directory

First, I would like to share my thoughts and reflections. I was not ready for this class in any way, shape, or form. I had no idea or experience related to PR or business communication, and felt very unprepared for the coming workload.

That did feel consistent throughout the first half of the semester, mostly because of me learning how to use the tools I was given really quickly.

While the course is primarily work among students with oversight from the professor, I feel like that was a large struggle this semester, with my lack of experience and skills going into the start of the semester.

Second, I would like to share what I’ve learned, but also struggled with during my time here. The main thing I have learned is how to manage an online mass email service.

I was assigned to oversee the Mailchimp account for EPML, which is responsible for sending out weekly updates to students about events and updates in the program.

Learning how to manage and work with the interface was a bit of an uphill struggle those first few weeks of using it.

There are some aspects that we are all used to in Microsoft Word or Google Docs that don’t function the same in Mailchimp, the biggest one being having to take extra steps to make sure text is aligned correctly. While it is a minor issue in the large picture of things, it is still something that makes things slower when it comes to wanting efficiency. 

But where Mailchimp has been pretty simple to figure out and work through its differences from other text services, where I have had the biggest issue is that I have no idea what happens on campus.

One thing that comes up each week doing Mailchimp is the list of upcoming events, which I often have zero idea about any of them. Since I am a commuter student who also works and has other areas of life that demand my attention outside of class, I don’t often know what is happening because I also don’t use much social media.

I feel like there were many areas this semester that I wasn’t set up as well for success as I could have been, and probably could have done more to make it better.