The partnership between Charleston Wine + Food and College of Charleston is designed to give the student fellows a hands-on experience as an “agency of record” before beginning their careers as communication professionals. Since the class is split up into four cohorts, public relations, media relations, social media + creative, we are able to see firsthand how those teams work in tandem to achieve a cohesive campaign not unlike a real agency. As a member of the public relations team who had little PR experience before beginning this class, I now feel more comfortable in that sphere + more ready to dive into that world when I graduate. I’ve developed a great relationship with my team + the other cohorts and I feel that we’ve all worked very hard to turn out some meaningful + engaging products for the festival.
From a personal standpoint, this fellowship has been one of the most beneficial opportunities of my college career. Food has been my passion ever since I was little; I voraciously consumed Food Network after school, and as I got older, I began to find recipes, bake for my family, and read pieces by food writers. Once I got to college, I began a student food publication on campus + began attending as many food events as I could, with one of them being Charleston Wine + Food. It was CHSWFF that made me really fall in love with food events, programming, and PR, so when the opportunity to be a student fellow came up, I jumped at it. It has truly been a delicious experience so far + I look forward to this next semester with the festival building meaningful programming and recounting the stories of our Lowcountry food systems for all to hear.