WOMEN IN MEDIA

WOMEN IN PR KAYE HAYES

I sat down with Communications Coordinator of Winthrop University, Kaye Hayes,

about her past, present, and future of her career.

Q: Describe your job title, what is the main purpose of

your job?

A: “My job title is to communicate with alumni,

donors, and community partners of the university. So, my

job is to find stories and information that is geared toward

that audience, and that information goes into press

releases, magazine articles, website profiles, basically any

kind of publication that's directed to our audience and the

stories that go into those publications, I do that."

Q: What is your daily work routine?

A: “My daily work routine varies. Most days I’m

checking emails, staying on top of assignments, and

communicating with different partners on campus. Like I said before, I work a lot with

advancement and Alumni relations, so it could be anything from ‘Can you post this unique

article?’ or ‘Hey can you interview these amazing alumni.’” Random things happen all the time,

so you have to be on your toes and be ready for whatever happens.”

Q: How long have you been working in this industry, and what has it taught you?
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A: “I’ve actually been working in the media industry since ’99, I probably look younger

than what I am (laughs). I started off as a newspaper reporter right out of college. Back then, it

was called print media, so I covered education and breaking news. Then, I transitioned to-kind of

the news office on campuses, like a newspaper for college universities. So, I was reporting about

things going on around campus, doing stories, interviewing people, things like that. The PR side

is new to me. I'm not just doing newsgathering and journalism kind of stuff, it is more of a focus

on what we are writing about. Not just covering what everyone else is covering. There is a

reason to what we do, how we do, that’s how I describe PR.”

Q: Before coming to Winthrop, what other work did you do?

A: “So, in my free time I do freelance. I do graphic design and websites; I am kind of like

a creative person so that kind of keeps my creative energy going while I am working here. Also,

as I said before, I've worked for universities before, so I like to merge those two together.”

Q: What is the hardest part of your job?

A: “I guess just expanding my vocabulary. I

write a lot about scholarships, alumni, and donations. It

is a very small subject area, and you can only say

scholarships and financial aid so many times, so I have

to learn how to write outside the box and do more

Q: Describe your journey to where you are now. Was it hard? Did you face any obstacles?

A: “Yeah, there were some hard moments. Like, there was a year when I didn’t work.

That was the time when the economy took a dive around 2008, and the newspaper business was

dying out and everything was changing into digital. At that time I wasn’t really sure where I

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wanted to go because I have been in the industry for about 10 years, and I was like, ‘Do I still

want to be a reporter?” so I just took some time to figure out what I wanted to do next. I didn’t

know that it was going to take a year to find a job (laughs), but during that time, it was really

rough. I just felt like I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do and that I was not contributing to

anything. So, it was kind of like a depressed state in my life.”

“Then I actually got a part-time job and then moved into a communications job at A&T.

That is when I learned that I could merge my newspaper background with the higher-ed and still

kind of write stories and be creative and still use those skills. After being at A&T for about 7

years, I decided it was time to move on and challenge myself, and this job came about.”

Q: Do you think the newspaper business is going to continue in the future?

A: I feel like, people will always want to have a hard copy of a newspaper. I think that it

is important to have an actual copy or hard copy of something just to have it for records.

Q: Was there a time in your life where you asked yourself, do you really want to do this as a

career?

A:” Oh yeah (laughs), when I was doing newspaper reporting. It was at a point where I

was doing the breaking news shift, which is at night; and so, whenever something happens, you

have to jump on it and write a story and turn it in. And just having to do that every night, it was

like a rollercoaster and a tight schedule; you never knew what was going to happen. At one point

I could be writing a cute funny story and all of a sudden, I would have to switch gears and write

about a homicide that happened. So, just doing that for a few months I was just over it. I wasn’t

sure if I wanted to do that for my career. Then I had the opportunity to go into writing about

education and I stayed in that for a little bit longer.”

Q: What do you love about your job?

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A: “I love being able to be creative and having freedom. Obviously, I have to write about

what my job is, which is alumni and donors and how giving back to the university is impactful to

students, but you can still be creative in that. There are so many people that have a story. If

everybody has a story, it's just a matter of sitting down and talking to them. So, just having the

freedom to do that and just touch people and get them inspired by my works makes me happy

with what I do.”

Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to work in the same field as you?

A: “My advice would definitely be to do an internship or a job shadow, or just get a feel

of what it is really like to be in the PR field or in the newspaper, entertainment, and reporting

field. Just do something so that you can get the experience and so you know what to expect when

applying for a job. I mean, once you graduate, you are pretty much a graduate, and now you're

ready to go into the field, but if you have a little background before you graduate it helps to

decide exactly where you want to go.”

Q: Lastly, where do you see yourself in the next few years?

A: “I still want to be in higher-ed, I still want to be on a college campus. I’m not sure if I

want to do teaching or just continue being in the communications field. I’m not really sure, but

probably in that area.”

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