Communication Students Win 2026 PRSA Awards

RIT School of Communication students received two Awards of Excellence at the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Rochester Chapter at the 2026 PRSA PRism awards ceremony last month.

Class projects for two separate courses earned the accolades. Students in COMM 253 Communication received an Element Award for their project, “West Virginia University Online Classes Engagement,” while students in COMM 212 Public Relations earned a Program Award for their project, “CPR You Ready.”

Additionally, Frank Marra, adjunct professor in the College of Liberal Arts for both courses, received the Educator of the Year award from the PRSA.

The “West Virginia University Online Classes Engagement” project demonstrated software for faculty in WVU’s online programs and created customized backgrounds for professors for their online material. Through this experience, the students honed their ability to produce engaging, interactive material and reduce boring “Death by Zoom” meetings.

For the “CPR You Ready” project, account supervisors Susannah Johnson (modern languages and cultures), Gavin King (interdisciplinary innovation), Winson Kwok (computer engineering), and Victoria Smith-Colon (psychology) led teams of students to develop a communication campaign to increase the rate of CPR – getting bystanders to perform CPR when they haven’t been trained to perform this life-saving first aid.

Through hands-on class work such as these as well as in the workplace through internships and co-ops, RIT’s School of Communication students put new learning to the test and strengthen their abilities to collaborate, problem solve, pitch ideas, communicate confidently, and use industry standard tech tools and applications. Along the way, they build a high-demand, future-proof set of skills that can apply to nearly any industry sector.

RIT’s School of Communication offers undergraduate majors in communication, communication with a journalism track, and advertising and public relations; a master’s degree program in communication; and a list of innovative and career-tracking minor and immersion options in areas such as health communication, expressive and analytic communication, visual culture, film studies, and more. It’s also home to Technically Speaking, RIT’s student advertising and public relations agency that offers end-to-end communication solutions for campus partners, local nonprofits, community organizations and more.