History
The Bradley Public Relations Agency is born of the Bradley Public Relations Lab, the on-campus student-run firm of the BYU Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). Named for Rulon L. Bradley, the founder of the public relations program at BYU, our PRSSA Chapter was established in 1969. The BYU chapter of PRSSA became the 17th such student chapter in the nation. By 1986, the Bradley Public Relations Agency was officially formed to bridge the gap between students’ educational experience and the working world.
In its 22 year existence, the now Bradley Agency has maintained a consistent workload of a dozen or more clients with upwards of 80 student participants and has been recognized as the best PRSSA chapter firm in the nation six times during that span. It has been a fantastic opportunity for our students who seek jobs in an industry where portfolio and skill set are increasingly important.
In 2005, PRSSA introduced its Nationally Affiliated Student-Run Firm initiative to bring greater credibility and recognition to the firm experience. Of more than 70 student-run firms in existence, only a dozen have been officially recognized by PRSSA as nationally affiliated student-run firms, of which BYU’s Bradley Public Relations Agency was the first. But its very nature as a student run-organization led to limited access to professional advisors, who typically spent time with students only once a week.
In 2007, the Department of Communications redesigned how the Bradley Agency operates. The first step one was to hire a full-time manager and now a graduate assistant as an assistant manager. Step two was to more closely integrate the Bradley Agency within the PR curriculum. The result is the Bradley Public Relations Agency, a new concept within academic circles. The goal of the Agency is simple: to provide PR majors with an opportunity to use public relations thought and theory to create strategic communications campaigns for six to seven clients a semester.
Because Bradley Public Relations is inherently tied to PRSSA, you know you are getting public relations work performed by accredited and certified public relations practices.