The
Lee University Bateman Team’s statewide campaign for Home Matters received an
honorable mention as a part of the Public Relations Student Society of
America’s (PRSSA) National Bateman Competition. The team, named “423 PR,”
consisted of senior public relations majors Megan Ash, Allie Cable, Megan
Jafari, and Katelyn Tresh.

PRSSA holds the Bateman Team Competition
every year. It is a competition in which approximately 70 universities and
colleges select four or five students to participate to create a complete
public relations campaign for a national client. The teams are required to
research, plan, implement and evaluate their campaign during the school year,
and turn in their submission to national PRSSA for judging. The challenge is
that every team has only the month of February to implement their campaign.

This year, the national client was Home Matters, a coast-to-coast
coalition that seeks to partner with organizations that strive to promote the
five foundations of a home, which are Health, Education, Stable Economy,
Individual Success, and Public Safety.

There have been nine Bateman
teams from Lee since 2003 with one team winning a 4th place nationally and five
receiving Honorable Mentions.

“I am so proud to be awarded the fifth
honorable mention in Lee’s history,” Jafari said. “Our team worked extremely
hard to implement a professional, successful campaign, and I’m so glad the
judges recognized that.”

The Lee team held a statewide public
relations campaign titled “Be a Neighbor. Be a Volunteer. Be Tennessee.” They
partnered with all five existing Home Matters affiliates in the state of
Tennessee and obtained six more as a result of the campaign. This raised
organizational Home Matters partnerships in Tennessee by 120 percent.

The affiliates in Tennessee now include Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise
in Chattanooga; Knox Housing Partnership and Restoration House in Knoxville;
Affordable Housing Resources and How’s Nashville in Nashville; United Housing,
Inc. in Memphis; Eastern Eight Community Development Corporation in Johnson
City; Habitat for Humanity of Cleveland; Impact Cleveland; Family Promise of
Bradley County; and Triple E Construction in Cleveland.

Three major events were held throughout the
state of Tennessee as a part of this awareness campaign. The launch took place
at the Capitol building in Nashville, a Fun Run and Chili Cook-off was held in
Cleveland, and a Home Matters luncheon was hosted by the team at Knox Housing
Partnership. These events, along with a statewide social media contest and an
informational branding presentation for all of the affiliates, made up the
campaign that brought Lee’s Bateman Team an honorable mention.

“The
PRSSA Bateman Team national campaign is the most prestigious and challenging
competition for public relations majors,” said Dr. Patty Silverman, the Lee
University public relations program coordinator and the PRSSA co-advisor and
internship coordinator. “Our students continue to make their mark nationally as
outstanding public relations majors, competing with the top universities across
the nation. I am so proud of this year’s team and their statewide campaign for
Home Matters.”

The Lee University Public Relations (PR) program is
designed to train students interested in professional or academic work in the
area of corporate, nonprofit or agency PR. There are currently 118 PR majors,
making it one of the largest and fastest growing majors in Lee’s Communication
Arts Department. In fall 2011, the program earned international accreditation
from the Public Relations Society of America, receiving a Certification in
Education for Public Relations (CEPR). Lee became the first Christian
university to receive this certification. Approximately 40 schools
internationally have been awarded CEPR.

For more information about
the Bateman Team or the PR program at Lee University, please contact Dr.
Silverman at [email protected].

Home Matters® is a
national movement uniting America around Home. For more information, visit http://www.HomeMattersAmerica.com