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In one of my past lives, I had a career in radio for eight years. I
worked as a Director of Public Information, and as a news anchor and
disc jockey. During my radio career, I wrote many, many public
service announcements and commercials. I quit the radio
business for a nice 9-5 job when I had a family.
As Director of Public Information, I was responsible to sort
through the piles of news releases we received, and to choose those
which the disc jockeys could quickly and easily use to fill time
with. As we received so many, only those which were well-written
were chosen.
The key to a good press release, from my experience, is to be
interesting and easily edited (lots of short paragraphs, which can be
either used or not, depending on the needs of the editor). A press release which
contains a fresh idea, which is of interest to the audience at hand, which is easy to
read, and easy to edit, will move to the top of the pile.
If you write one which has worked well for you, please contact me and
I will include it here--and give you full credit, including a link to
your student ad, which will increase traffic to your ad. I'll also
be posting success stories with a link to your ad, so be sure and let
me know!
Your news releases can be sent to your local newspaper, student
paper, church newsletter, television, radio stations, etc. If you
can address the editor, public information officer, etc., by name, it
will make you some points. Contact these outlets in your area and
ask them how to submit your press release.
Make sure you include how to reach you in your press release.
You may get lucky and get an interview by a reporter who needs a story
right away. If he/she can't reach you, you may get passed by.
Press
Release Sample #1 - For Individual Student
For
Immediate Release
(Date)
Contact:
(Your Name)
(Your
Address)
(Your
Telephone Numbers, Including Fax if You Have One)
(Your
Email Address)
Local
Student Resorts to Cyber-Begging to Pay for College, Trying to Avoid
Credit Card Debt
(Your
Town/Your State/Date) Paying for college has never been easy, but
these days it can seem nearly impossible. Many students don't
qualify for financial aid, and when they do--it's often too little, too
late.
When
a student does qualify for financial aid, he or she often does not
receive any money until well into the quarter or semester. But,
the student is expected to somehow buy textbooks, pay tuition and attend
full-time while waiting weeks or even months to get their first dime of
financial aid, including student loan money.
And
when the financial aid finally does come, it is often barely enough to
pay for tuition and books, yet the student is expected to take on a full
load of credits to keep his or her financial aid. Colleges and the
government impose maximum limits on grants and loans, but this maximum
is not nearly enough.
A
full time student is normally expected to take at least 12 units.
Twelve units requires 12 hours in the classroom each week. To get
C's, a student is expected to study at least two hours for every one
hour in class. So, just to get a C average, a student will have to
spend at least 36 hours each week on his or her studies. To get
A's or B's, many more hours of studying are necessary.
So,
when is this student supposed to work so he or she can pay the rent and
buy food? Unfortunately, in order to get their education, students
often end up resorting to credit cards.
Local
student (Your First and Last Name), (Your High School) class of (Year
You Graduated or Year You Will Graduate), is trying something new in
order to be able to get that college degree without resorting to credit
cards--asking the world for help.
(Your
First Name) has joined students from around the world, who have signed
up on StarvingStudentScholarships.org, a new "sophisticated
cyber-begging" website which aims to connect individual students
with individual sponsors.
The
site was created by Karen Kelly, a "starving" first-year law
school student who, ironically, used her credit card to get the site up
and running.
"I
was getting pretty desperate and was thinking about creating one of
those begging websites. But, I didn't want to be lumped in with
sites like guys who ask for money to buy beer with. I wanted
something more sophisticated, and I really believed that there
were people out there who would be willing to help a hard-working
student. I was still feeling too selfish, though, and then one
night a thought popped into my head--make the site available for all
students who are struggling just like me."
Students
are only asked to donate $1 to create their ad, to help keep the site
running. Student ads then remain active until the student
graduates or pays off education-related debts.
Students
are allowed to place PayPal donation buttons in their ads, where
sponsors can choose to donate as little as $1 to help the student with
his or her education. Sponsors are allowed to browse the student
ads for free. All sponsor donations go directly to the student,
with no fees charged by Starving Student Scholarships (although
donations are always welcome).
You
can find (Your Name)'s ad by logging on to http://www.StarvingStudentScholarships.org,
and searching the student ads by (his/her) name.
###
(Put
these three pound symbols here to indicate this is the end of the
release.)
Press
Release Sample #2 - For a Group of Students
For
Immediate Release
(Date)
Contact:
(Your Name)
(Your
Address)
(Your
Telephone Numbers, Including Fax if You Have One)
(Your
Email Address)
Local
Students Resort to Cyber-Begging to Pay for College, Trying to Avoid
Credit Card Debt
- or an
alternative to "Local Students" might be something like:
(Your School)
Students
(Your School)
Graduates
(Your Church
or Group) Students or Graduates
(Your
Town/Your State/Date) Paying for college has never been easy, but
these days it can seem nearly impossible. Many students don't
qualify for financial aid, and when they do--it's often too little, too
late.
When
a student does qualify for financial aid, he or she often does not
receive any money until well into the quarter or semester. But,
the student is expected to somehow buy textbooks, pay tuition and attend
full-time while waiting weeks or even months to get their first dime of
financial aid, including student loan money.
And
when the financial aid finally does come, it is often barely enough to
pay for tuition and books, yet the student is expected to take on a full
load of credits to keep his or her financial aid. Colleges and the
government impose maximum limits on grants and loans, but this maximum
is not nearly enough.
A
full time student is normally expected to take at least 12 units.
Twelve units requires 12 hours in the classroom each week. To get
C's, a student is expected to study at least two hours for every one
hour in class. So, just to get a C average, a student will have to
spend at least 36 hours each week on his or her studies. To get
A's or B's, many more hours of studying are necessary.
So,
when is this student supposed to work so he or she can pay the rent and
buy food? Unfortunately, in order to get their education, students
often end up resorting to credit cards.
(Your
Group) is trying something new in order to be able to get that college
degree without resorting to credit cards--asking the world for help.
(Your
Group) has joined students from around the world, who have signed up on
StarvingStudentScholarships.org, a new "sophisticated
cyber-begging" website which aims to connect individual students
with individual sponsors.
The
site was created by Karen Kelly, a "starving" first-year law
school student who, ironically, used her credit card to get the site up
and running.
"I
was getting pretty desperate and was thinking about creating one of
those begging websites. But, I didn't want to be lumped in with
sites like guys who ask for money to buy beer with. I wanted
something more sophisticated, and I really believed that there
were people out there who would be willing to help a hard-working
student. I was still feeling too selfish, though, and then one
night a thought popped into my head--make the site available for all
students who are struggling just like me."
Students
are only asked to donate $1 to create their ad, to help keep the site
running. Student ads then remain active until the student
graduates or pays off education-related debts.
Students
are allowed to place PayPal donation buttons in their ads, where
sponsors can choose to donate as little as $1 to help the student with
his or her education. Sponsors are allowed to browse the student
ads for free. All sponsor donations go directly to the student,
with no fees charged by Starving Student Scholarships (although
donations are always welcome).
You
can find (Your Groups)'s ads by logging on to http://www.StarvingStudentScholarships.org,
and searching the student ads by student names, school, city, state or
country.
###
(Put
these three pound symbols here to indicate this is the end of the
release.)
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