Rock CAN Roll takes PR Senior Capstone Course to new heights

Photo courtesy of Moxie PR

While some non-profit work may be limited with the pandemic still taking the world by full force almost a year after its start, other nonprofits have found creative ways to continue to give back to the community.

Public Relations Capstone course PR 107 is a requirement for students in the public relations major, where students are grouped together to assist a real nonprofit organization with a public relations campaign.

Ivan Cardona, assistant professor of journalism, media studies and public relations at Hofstra University, told the group, who’ve named themselves “Moxie PR Agency,” that this is the first of this kind of project done at this scale. The students that make up Moxie PR have been assigned to nonprofit hunger relief organization Rock CAN Roll.

“Students serve on a pro bono basis to develop a PR program for a nonprofit client assigned by the instructor,” said Cardona, one of the PR 107 instructors. “Public relations students combine the theory and experiential components of their previous classes and internships to provide clients with strategic planning, objectives and identification of appropriate techniques for a successful PR effort. Working with their clients, students execute various aspects of the campaign and develop a work portfolio as they complete their public relations degree requirements.”

A group of six senior students, including Alec Jacobs, the director of incentives and sponsorships, Dianna Riegel, director of social media, Emily Suter, art director, Jarrett Weber, account executive, Madison Mento, director of branding and brand management and Victoria Wetmore, agency director, partnered with Rock CAN Roll.

Rock CAN Roll’s mission, according to Cardona, is “to stock the shelves of emergency food agencies with healthy, nonperishable food and provisions. They collaborate with rock concerts, schools, corporations and private individuals to collect nutritious, nonperishable food (for people and their pets) and necessities for distribution to Long Island’s families in need.”

“The six of us have taken on an enormous project in the last half of our senior year, among other classwork, trying to find jobs, and of course, during the pandemic,” Mento said. “We’re all dedicated to this project because we share a common goal: to do the most amount of good for this nonprofit as we can during our time with it.”

Throughout the course, Moxie PR will work with Rock CAN Roll’s founder to set up an extensive PR campaign, including marketing, advertising and everything in between. Their end goal is to put on a virtual concert to raise money for the organization’s operations.

Usually, pre-pandemic, Rock CAN Roll would hold in-person events, often at concerts, to collect canned goods through can drives, which would be distributed to the surrounding Long Island community. The organization’s main source of can collection has now been limited due to COVID-19.

“It’s the biggest project any of us have ever taken on,” Mento said. Essentially, the group is doing all of the public relations for the company, leading up to the virtual concert in late April.

So far, the lineup for the virtual concert, tickets for which will be sold for $5 through Facebook, include Hofstra alumni Libby Quinn Band and current Hofstra student, Savannah Shea Music. Ideally, Moxie would still like to have one more performer.

“We are doing all of the public relations for this organization,” Weber said. “This is by far the most hands-on experience that I’ve had at Hofstra aside from an internship that I acquired on my own. It feels like I’m working a job, and it feels like I’m doing the work that I would be doing in the future. I feel like with this experience I’m learning significantly more than I have in any class combined.”

At first, the course was being taught through the hybrid model, but now it’s all virtual – which means all of Moxie’s meetings are over Zoom too. Weber joked that they were always stressed, but that it’s worth it.

“We know that the work we’re doing is making a real impact, and that’s what’s driving us to put on this concert,” Mento added.

The concert will be held virtually on Wednesday, April 28, one of Hofstra’s designated wellness days. The Moxie PR Agency said that while it takes a lot of work to plan the event, and even more to iron out all of the details, it is an absolutely worthwhile experience to prepare them for their post-grad careers.

“This capstone course benefits the students, and our community partners consider these services valuable sources of support,” Cardona said.