Dusti Minier

JOUR 3440

Reflective Journal

Working with the Lutheran Homes Society (LHS), namely Kari Bucher, the

organization’s manager of marketing and corporate communications, has been an experience that

taught me a great deal. Before this semester began I was not sure what to expect out of the

service learning process. Now that my time working with Kari has come to a close I feel I have a

lot to take away from it.

First and foremost it gave me an opportunity to work closely with a non-profit

organization which is something I have always wanted to do. I enjoy volunteering and giving my

time to help others and this project really helped me accomplish that. I got to see what it was like

for Kari to essentially run the organizations public relations efforts single handedly. This is

something that is often expected of people who work in non-profit as there is not a lot of money

to go around.

I could tell that Kari was eager to utilize me from the moment I was assigned to have her

as my client. I chose Lutheran Homes Society because I have a religious background, although I

am not Lutheran, and I felt it would be interesting to see how the organization worked, being

affiliated with a ministry.

Once I sat down with Kari to discuss what my role would be over the course of the

semester I gained a lot of insight into her position. She had no problem telling me about the

challenges they were currently facing. Early in the year they had appointed a new CEO after the

previous one had retired and although she lovingly described a stereotypical Lutheran as “slow

moving” and “hard to change” she felt this new CEO was more open to interacting with the

public eye and media.

This was a big deal because up until this point she did not often find opportunity to work

with journalists and other media professionals. Due to the new CEO, Kari and I discussed how

LHS has been going through some big changes. She was starting to have more freedom to create

interesting pieces, there have been talks of finally starting social media accounts (which they do

not currently have), and she has been able to start inviting journalists to write about things

happening at LHS.

One problem I encountered while working with Kari was the lack of social media. Being

a college student, that would have been one of the easiest things for me to assist with.

Unfortunately, at the time we had set out the contract for the pieces I would complete that was

not an option. I often wished this project could be year-long as opposed to a semester because I

think it would have provided the opportunity to work a lot more closely with my client and have

more time to develop a plan for her to utilize once our time was up. That way I could have at

least helped her map out a road for social media once the time came for her to start using it.

Overall, I think LHS faces a unique challenge in finding a way to get their name out there

to the general public. They are a ministry affiliated organization so they receive a large amount

of support from surrounding Lutheran congregations but when it comes to everyday people that

could be using the services they provide, people do not know about them to the extent that they

could if they were promoting themselves more.

Working with Kari was usually very easy to do. She was more than willing to help me if I

had questions, to guide me in the right direction when working on pieces, and to provide

feedback afterward. Sometimes it was challenging to get in contact with her and keep each other

updated, me being a busy college student and her being responsible for the department, but I

think we worked well together.

I never felt like I was working on something that I could not complete well and a lot of

the time she even provided me with who I would need to contact while already having notified

them I would be reaching out for research.

Doing this project has allowed me to learn how to report to someone and have actual

deadlines. When writing the press release I had to get in contact with the subject of the release

and coordinate with her in order to do some research. One of the nice things about the release

was that LHS has a standard format they tend to follow which let me fill in the appropriate

information that I had gathered.

When developing the other pieces I looked to my research on LHS itself, how they

function, who they serve, what they have done in the past, and tried to stay true to something I

felt Kari would want or even have made herself.

At times I found it challenging to balance this work I was doing with everything else I

have going on during a typical semester. I am a highly involved student and that tends to make

my life hectic. However, learning about various PR pieces and how to write them before really

starting to focus on my client was a big help.

In the future, I think I will have a better understanding of what steps to go through and

what to expect when working for/with someone and creating pieces for a client. I grew a lot this

semester and even though I wish I had time to do more for Kari I think I learned a lot of valuable

lessons. Even if some of the lessons were not new, this project helped add to my understanding.

I also thought it was beneficial to talk about our projects in class from time to time and

for Itay to talk with us about the progress we were making because it allowed me to see how my

classmates were doing, what challenges they might be facing, etc.

As I said before, I was not sure what to expect going in to this but I am thankful I had the

opportunity to do this project. It has helped me to further evaluate what my future in public

relations holds, where I might want to end up in the future, and what I can offer as an individual.