Five students from the Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Macau, earned silver trophy at the second China University Student PR Planning Contest held at Shanghai International Studies University.

The student team, dubbed Feicai Gongguan (boiling talents), is composed of five year-four students majoring in Journalism and Public Communication. They are Ms. Qiuyan Lu, Ms. Chengjie Yang, Ms. Siwei Wang, Ms. Danju Chen, and Mr. Siying Xu. They worked under the supervision of Dr. Ying Li, the assistant professor specializing in public relations. Since the launch of the Contest in March, about 450 teams from 73 universities all over the country submitted their PR planning proposals to the Contest. 10 topics, each featuring a PR situation faced by a well-known sponsoring corporation, were open to the ingenuity springing from the untapped talent pool of college PR enthusiasts.

The PR proposal Feicai Gongguan submitted deals with a one-year-long corporate social responsibility campaign by Amway China, “I Am on the Way, the 2008-2009 Amway Volunteer Teachers for Disabled Children Campaign Proposal”. Responding to the dire situation faced by disabled children in Sichuan after the earthquake in May, the team proposed Amway to support the safety and arts education of the disabled children in earthquake-afflicted regions and in poverty-stricken areas in China. The campaign aims to fill in the gaps in disabled children’s education, help foster a vibrant volunteer culture among young Chinese citizens, and build a unique brand of corporate citizenship for Amway China. The judges were impressed by the proposal’s forward-looking campaign rationale, its thoughtful strategies and implementation scheme, as well as Feicai Gongguan’s steady on-site performance.

This year’s contest is the second the China International Public Relations Association (CIPRA) organized, aiming to promote educational and professional excellence in PR in universities. The first was held in Beijing in 2007. A different team from the Department won bronze trophy. Now the current students are all eager to participate in the third contest next year.

Caption: Communication students of UM awarded silver prize at a PR planning contest