one by one®: SPJ at ATU
Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) advocates for ethical journalism and unbiased reporting. Its college chapters play a crucial role in nurturing the next generation of journalists. SPJ’s Arkansas Tech University chapter embodies this mission through one primary initiative: the promotion of media literacy.
“Our college chapter is a registered student organization (RSO). We’re a small group of journalism students, and we recruit other journalism majors into our organization to help promote media literacy,” explained Megan Toland, associate professor of journalism. “Besides spreading awareness on media literacy, being involved in an organization like SPJ while in school has been shown to have many benefits for students.”
Chapter members give presentations on media literacy and its importance to students in junior high and high school. They also invite young participants to a competition—with a cash prize incentive—to explain what media literacy means to them.
Using recruitment and retention gifts to make an impact
In addition to doing outreach, the chapter holds various recruitment and retention events on campus. “We’re hosting a banquet that’s open to all journalism majors, so it’s a
recruitment event, but it’s also a nice gesture for our current members, so it’s also a retention event,” Toland said. “We have door prizes for attendees, and we’ll send goodies home with people.”
Event attendees receive a thoughtful recruitment and retention gift—a notebook imprinted with the SPJ logo—purchased with a 4imprint one by one grant. Toland is strategic about how the organization uses the notebooks to ensure the greatest impact is made.
“We’ve given the notebooks out to our members as a thank-you gift for their involvement. For the banquet, we’ll place a notebook at each person’s place setting,” Toland said. “We also give them to high school students who tour our journalism department—it’s a nice way for them to remember us.”
A note from Cheryl
We love seeing the positive impact of SPJ at ATU and how it promotes media literacy. 4imprint was honored to provide recruitment and retention gifts for its prospective and current journalism students. If you’re interested in a one by one grant, visit onebyone.4imprint.com.