Source: Nancy Muturi, 785-532-3890, nmuturi@k-state.edu
Note to editors: Kevin McCarty is a graduate of Hutchinson High School.
News release prepared by: Chelsea Good, cgood@k-state.edu
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
K-STATE STUDENTS PARTNER WITH WATERSHED RESTORATION PROJECT IN A WATER MANAGEMENT CAMPAIGN
MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University students involved with a communications campaign for the Delaware River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy program will present their contributions to the campaign at a community event Thursday, May 1.
The event, which will include watershed residents and members of the watershed program's stakeholder leadership team will be at 1 p.m. at the Dedication Point picnic shelter, which is at the east end of the Perry Lake Reservoir Dam. The watershed covers portions of Atchison, Brown, Jackson, Jefferson, Nemaha, and Shawnee counties.
K-State students in a public relations campaign class taught by Nancy Muturi, assistant professor of journalism and mass communications, have been working with Marlene Bosworth, coordinator of the Delaware River Watershed and Protection Strategy program, to produce an ongoing communications campaign for the program. The campaign was made possible through a grant from WaterLINK, a service-learning project available to college and university faculty, students and their community partners in Kansas with funding from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. WaterLINK connected Bosworth and Muturi for the project and provided the funding.
Muturi's fall 2007 public relations campaigns class was the first to work with watershed. The students produced a watershed logo, brochures, news releases, a household hazardous waste poster and promotional water bottles. They also set up radio interviews for Bosworth to talk about the new Northeast Kansas Regional Household Hazardous Waste Program that the Delaware River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy project was instrumental in getting started.
"The students' communications training and the hours they've dedicated to helping the watershed project have been priceless," Bosworth said. "The logo and educational brochure are core pieces of our project's outreach and are a major step in creating a watershed identity."
Muturi's spring 2008 class is continuing the work, with a focus on filter strips -- land on the edge of agricultural fields implanted to permanent vegetation to protect water quality. Students have been developing radio public service announcements, informational placemats for area restaurants, roadside signs, mailing materials, a newsletter template, an interactive presentation for Bosworth to deliver in area elementary schools, and promotional items with watershed management messages. The materials are designed to promote awareness about the watershed project and encourage water conservation practices in the watershed.
The students also have created letterheads and business cards for the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy project as part of the campaign.
The partnership has benefited the K-State students and the watershed project, Muturi said.
"By working with a real client, students also get real-life experience, which is different from learning purely from the books," she said. "The Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy program has given students an opportunity to apply what they have learned over a four-year period studying public relations. It is like a test-run, which prepares them for the real world."
K-State students working on the watershed project include:
Audra Sudbeck, senior in public relations, Baileyville; Hanora Smith, senior in public relations, Garfield; Jacob Fisher, senor in public relations, Harper; Jenna Murphy, senior in public relations, Hope; Emily Mihelcic, senior in public relations, Lenexa; Kevin McCarty, senior in public relations, Manhattan; Bradley Puderbaugh, senior in public relations, Topeka; Kristen Seiwert, senior in public relations, Wichita; and Laura Noll, senior in public relations and advertising, Winchester.
From Colorado: Morgan Leiker, senior in public relations, Holly; and Chelsea Good, senior in agricultural communications and journalism, public relations and political science, Parker.