As anyone that has kept up with my journey through college knows, I changed my major (pretty drastically, might I add) a few times along the way. I started out wanting to be a dietitian, I followed that path for two years until chemistry 1 and 2 kicked my butt and they changed ALL of my curriculum to a bunch more chemistry classes. This lead to a break down of ‘what the heck am I going to do with my life,’ ‘its too late to change now,’ and ‘my parents are going to kill me if I do.’ I went to career coaching, major exploration classes and did a whole lot of soul searching to end up pursuing a degree in public relations. There was a lot more changing of majors that lead me to that point, but here I am.
Honestly, when I started my degree path for PR, I really didn’t know much about it besides celebrities needed a PR person to speak for them. Man, did I have a lot to learn. Little did I know, I could work for an agency, or I could do PR in education, sports, entertainment, health, the list goes on.
Most people know that I’ve been a cheerleader my entire life. My life long go
al was to become an OU cheerleader one day and my sophomore year of college, I accomplished just that. I had such an amazing year, doing what I always dreamed of for the University of Oklahoma. Not to mention, my dad raised me to love football and all things OU. My life for the last 10+ years has revolved around football games (and other sporting events) and being thrown in the air and flipping a little bit. Although I hung up the pom-pom’s a couple of years ago, my love for the sport and the activities that came with it hasn’t went away. Little did I know, cheerleading and my dad’s love of football would lead me to what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. As I was thinking about what kind of PR I wanted to specialize in, I came to the realization that I could still live in the environment that I had grown up in and loved my entire life. Sports Public Relations. How fun would it be to work for a NFL or NBA team or the NCAA? Pretty fun, I could imagine. So as I am furthering my education in public relations, I’ll be doing so in hopes of landing a job in sports PR after graduation. Thanks, Dad and cheerleading for introducing me to my true passion. Ya’ll rock.
Shyann Hester 