Ahead of the next BCU open day this Saturday, hear from two Birmingham School of Media students on what to expect.
Jack Walton: Earlier this month, myself and fellow Eastside PR member Jemma Lowman volunteered to work the undergraduate & postgraduate open day for the School of Media. The day was filled with meeting new people, a very achy jaw from so much smiling and also learning new skills and seeing different parts of the university campus that I had yet to discover (even though I’m a second year student!).
The day started just after 9am with an official briefing from our Lecturer, Kelly. We were given schedules of how the day would run; this was super exciting as this was my first time working an open day and also my first time even attending one for the School of Media. I made the decision to come to uni quite late, so I didn’t get to experience an actual open day event at BCU myself.
Our job was to document the day as it unfolded through our social media channels, mainly being Twitter and Instagram (please give these a follow if you haven’t already!). We posted photos of guests taking part in the day, short videos of the workshops and quite a few selfies were taken too… any excuse to take a few extra selfies is always a good one!
The first tour of the building that Jemma and I went on was really interesting. I got to see numerous TV studios and heard from lecturers on different subjects such as photography, TV, journalism, music industries and PR. Just the vast number of modules we have on offer at the school is pretty impressive and means there is something for everyone. The amount of people with parents was a great turnout considering this was the second open day of the new semester.
The workshop I helped out with was for guests interested in Journalism, New Media and PR. I had the pleasure of helping out my PR tutor Kelly; she certainly kept me on my toes with the panda themed task we had (don’t ask!). It was lovely meeting students interested in all things PR who already had ambitions to become PR specialists. Many had questions which I answered through my recent experiences of creating campaigns and completing placements at PR agencies within the city.
Jemma Lowman: As a BA (Hons Media and Communication student, I had seen the television studios beforehand so had a good knowledge of the studios in order to answer questions from visitors. As part of the day, I attended the different workshops – Radio, Television and Events and Music Industries – in order to capture the workshops both live on social media and in photographs for future reference. Whilst at these workshops, I even learnt some new tips and tricks from each Lecturer (assignment deadlines, here I come!).
As I had been to a BCU Open Day before attending the university, back in 2015, it was so surprising to me about just how much had changed in the open day layout. The taster sessions are a fantastic opportunity for prospective students to have a go at something to do with the field they are interested in.
I always remember a student ambassador taking time to talk to me and show me around throughout the day, which encouraged me to choose BCU as my first choice (and obviously, the amazing facilities helped with that too!).
We both really enjoyed our day working on behalf of Eastside PR and we look forward to future experiences to put our PR studies into practice.
