A day in the life of Illinois State University senior public relations major Angelina Ruiz is a day spent on the go. Regularly juggling classwork, an internship with Event Management, Dining, and Hospitality (EMDH), and a director position at student radio station WZND, Ruiz has learned to spend her minutes wisely, but she doesn’t mind the quick pace.
“I really like the different opportunities I get from each thing I’ve been a part of,” Ruiz said. “WZND and EMDH have been my building stones.”
On November 9, University Photographer Shea Grehan ’20 and student photographer Sophia Gresham followed along with Ruiz through a day in her life.
Ruiz’s day starts at 8 a.m. in the Student Services Building prepping for the week’s events. Today EMDH has two big names to contend with: Logan Henderson of Big Time Rush fame, here for a Q&A, and a performance by The Driver Era featuring Ross Lynch.
As part of her job, Ruiz helps prepare for guest performers and assembles gift bags with Fear the Bird shirts included. For Ruiz, EMDH has been an opportunity to branch out her social media and event planning skills.
“EMDH was a completely new world for me to step into,” said Ruiz. “I learned a lot about analytics and the things that drive people online, because online is such a crazy world. I learned so much about that, while also having a really great in-person experience with meeting people and engaging in a bunch of different events.”
After dropping off the assembled gift bags, Ruiz heads to the office of Kacy Rader, hospitality coordinator for EMDH, to plan events for students at Illinois State.
“We’re discussing a future free event. My team, we help promote all of the free events and paid events that happen in the Bone,” said Ruiz. “For this week, it was an event called ‘Bingo and Wings’ where we gave away Squishmallows to people who won rounds of bingo, and then we also offered free food. It was a pretty cool event. We were looking at the prizes that we’re giving away, doing a quality check.”
Ruiz then heads to the halls connecting dressing rooms under Braden Auditorium, ensuring everything is ready for the University’s guests. Most artists leave one particular souvenir behind.
“This is underneath Braden Auditorium in the Bone, where our artists will come and get ready. All their prep rooms are underneath here,” said Ruiz. “All the artists have a poster they sign, and then we hang it up on the wall which is really cool. They’re leaving their mark at ISU.”
Ruiz then heads upstairs to set the stage in Braden Auditorium for that night’s Q&A session with Logan Henderson. She makes sure to review camera angles to find the perfect shot.
“As the social media interns, when we go to these events, we have to document them live on the (Instagram) story, whereas the graphic designers take professional photos that get posted later,” said Ruiz. “It’s nice to know the space and test out some spots to see what will look best on the story and posts.”
With everything set for the night’s guests, Ruiz walks over to the Bone Student Center Starbucks to attend an EMDH planning meeting to brainstorm the week’s upcoming social media posts. This year has a heavier workload than most.
“We have weekly meetings to schedule out our social media and the events that we’re doing in the Bone, and some of the things we want to advertise within the dining halls, since we also cover their social media,” Ruiz said. “These meetings have gotten longer and a bit more intense because we split our social media this year. It’s previously been one page, but we’ve now also become the co-runners of Redbird life, which is the main Instagram page where students can see what events are happening on campus and how they can get involved.”
At 11 a.m., Ruiz attends COM 377, one of two required capstone classes for the public relations major. Taught by Dr. Rebecca Hayes, students work for a real-world client to develop a campaign plan.
“This was deep into starting the campaign. I remember her telling us about how when it comes to public relations, a company will come to you with problems, but it is your job as their PR coordinator to understand the business inside and out, and what they actually need to do, and what their real problem is, and then how to build from that.”
Just after noon, Ruiz heads to the basement of Fell Hall and her WZND office to prepare for an evening event, the College of Business’ Start Up Showcase dinner. Ruiz has a passion for event planning and has put together multiple events in her time at WZND in her director role.
“I am the director of the WZND public relations department, which is collaborative with the external relations department,” Ruiz said. “We build and maintain the reputation and relationship of our radio station within the community and with people at the University. Every year we host a philanthropy event where we invite local media outlets. We raised $1,800 this year for the ISU child care center.”
This evening’s honorary dinner is for the College of Business’ Startup Showcase, a Shark Tank-like event with students competing to pitch their entrepreneurial ideas for seed money. The college also uses this event to honor successful alumni entrepreneurs who serve as judges.
Hosted in the Aaron Leech Club in Hancock Stadium, Ruiz and her coworkers work behind the scenes to make the event a success.
“We typically get to our event about an hour early, since we do a lot of the creative design. We set up the centerpieces and wait for the guests to arrive. We run the registration and the overall schedule of events,” said Ruiz. “We invite all the students who are a part of the competition to come to this dinner and network. All of these people know what it’s like to start an invention or a business from the very beginning. It’s a really good opportunity for these students to see all these people who have excelled in their profession.”
For Ruiz, her work for both EMDH and WZND have been vital in developing a professional skillset she intends to use in her career.
“I’ve always been kind of into big, event-type things. Event planning is something I’m passionate about; being able to understand what it’s like to market an event, let alone plan it overall. At WZND I do a lot of event planning, we host a lot of things. I understand what it’s like to rent a venue and to get a headcount and to create invitations. I also learned how to make press releases and communicate with media outlets to promote things like this,” said Ruiz. “From EMDH, I have the social media side, where I know how much it costs to promote something on Facebook or Instagram, or what kind of graphics or photos attract an audience. I think these jobs have helped me in terms of gauging where I want to go with event planning.”
As graduation approaches this May, Ruiz looks back on her full schedule with no regrets.
“My advice to other students is to not be afraid of the unknown. When I became an RA (resident assistant), I was getting a lot of emails about ways to get my students involved on campus. The radio station stuck out. I had never thought about radio at all, but I tried it out, and it’s been the greatest experience of my life,” said Ruiz. “Even job applications that might spark your interest, go get it, because getting those opportunities and meeting those people will create your future for you and will make this school feel like a home.”
