Seton Hall University student team creates lymphoma awareness campaign

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Seton Hall University’s Bateman Team kicked off its monthlong campaign for lymphoma awareness on Feb. 14, with the launch of “Seton Hall Love Week.” The team, which is a division of SHU’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, has to build a public relations campaign for a client chosen by the Public Relations Society of America; this year’s client is the Paul Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to lymphoma research. SHU’s Love Week is the first phase of the team’s two-part campaign.

“We’re creating a campaign from scratch,” Jiaqi Liu, an SHU junior on the four-person Bateman Team, said in a phone interview with the News-Record on Feb. 14. “We can do it however we want, and we wanted to include the South Orange community.”

The team will set up a table at SHU’s men’s basketball games at the Prudential Center with information about lymphoma; the information will also be available in locations around campus. Team members will be talking about how to spot early signs of lymphoma, teaching how to self-test and sharing resources. The team is also planning on hosting a spin class and dance workshop.

When this week is over, the team members — Liu, Samantha Paradise, Madeline Sutter and Michele Modugno — will begin social media activities and quiz young adults in the community on their knowledge of lymphoma. Some events will be done online, while others will be in-person, man-on-the-street–style games. Prizes have been donated by local businesses.

“We have a tight bond with the residents, and we want to emphasize that relationship,” Liu said. “The prizes are from local businesses, so we’re leveraging that relationship. We’re going to walk around town and not only include people on campus.”

The campaign project is a national contest, and the university teams that participate don’t get to choose their client; PRSA announces who it will be in the fall, and students have time to decide whether or not they want to participate. Then they have to strategize.

“We have a limited budget of $300, so we have to be creative with that,” Liu said. “But we’ve used about $150 of that, because we have really good relationships with businesses in town. They donate prizes, and then we’re able to use that money for materials like tablecloths and signs.”

It’s not required for PRSSA members to participate, according to Liu; the ones who do are mostly juniors and seniors. If members do choose to participate, they have to be ready to do a lot of research and work. Everyone on the team is a public relations major; the campaign contest is a cross between an academic and extracurricular activity.

“All of us are doing it because we want to; we all support the cause,” Liu said. “We want to make every event as quantifiable as possible.”

The team will eventually put together a presentation of the whole project for submission. It’s a lot of work, but it simulates real-life experience, which members of the team might not get in a classroom, according to Liu.

“It’s experience you don’t get in a classroom unless you do an internship,” she said. “This is a really fast head start, because we’re doing literally everything.”

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