Backpack students sit down with Assistant Teaching Professor Bonham to talk about how she brings industry into the classroom.
As a “lifelong learner,” Assistant Teaching Professor Jill Spiekerman Bonham stresses the importance of staying curious and saying yes to any opportunity. From reporter to director of public relations, Bonham brings in field-tested methods that uniquely combine almost all aspects of the communication industry.
Bonham frequently updates her curriculum, utilizing her professional connections to ensure students are developing relevant skills for a changing field. In her role as advisor for the University of Minnesota Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), Bonham encourages networking, building communication skills and participating in communities that open doors.
We sat down with Bonham to discuss her path to Hubbard, what students can gain from organizations like PRSSA and how she brings industry to the classroom.
Backpack: How did you end up at Hubbard?
Jill Bonham: It's my love of teaching and making a difference in people's lives. I've had a really long professional career. I have experience working as a newspaper reporter, an ag publications editor, a spokesman for the world's largest pork production company, director of public relations for Maytag and sales communications manager for Purina.
I also have about six years of teaching experience. I taught full-time at Iowa State University before I moved to Minnesota to do a year of sabbatical, filling in for a professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. I also taught for St. Mary's University of Minnesota in Winona.
I have a long history with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) as well. I was a chapter liaison for fifteen years at Iowa State before working there, and so I've always done stuff connected to PRSA. When this position opened here in the fall of 2023 and I saw that it was connected to teaching PR and being the PRSSA advisor, I was like, I'm all in.
B: So with PRSSA, what do you see as the value of student organizations in preparing students for careers?
JB: One, you get to meet with a lot of students that are different than you. It's fun to meet people outside your friend zone. However, the biggest value in PRSSA is that our students are building a portfolio of work samples every day. You could be on a committee. You could be part of a content workshop that we're doing. It's not just meeting and listening to speakers. Yes, we do that, but we also do a lot of hands-on things.
PRSSA also has a fabulous relationship with Minnesota PRSA, the professional group. We do an Instagram takeover for their Classics event and do live reels as people are getting their awards because when you're getting an award, you don't want to worry about who's filming to put it on the agency channel. Bonus, we get to meet all those people coming in for that award show while we’re working registration, which is super fun.
Additionally, we do a lot for PR North, which is a student conference that the Minnesota PRSA puts on. We do the registration for that and a lot of hands-on things, which helps us mix with all the other students that are there from nine or 10 other PRSSA chapters as well as the professionals.
B: What can students look forward to in your classes?
JB: I'm very well-connected to professionals, so my classes change every semester based on what my network's telling me they're doing or not doing. Over the summer, I met with a student that I had my second semester teaching here. She works for an agency in town, in PR. I said, “OK, here's a list of assignments I have for professional writing. What's in here that you don't do?” She crossed out a few things and I took them out as assignments. I said, “What's not here that you do that would be useful for an intern to know?” She told me this, this and this, and I added them to my list. What I'm teaching might be in a book, but it's also stuff you really have to know.
B: What is one thing you want students to know about Hubbard before graduating?
JB: The Hubbard School is a real community. Anybody here will do just about anything they can to make you successful. This is a network that will always be with you forever. I tell students in my class, my classroom is a safe place and my office is a safe place. I'm here to help. I just wrote a recommendation for someone going to graduate school that graduated two years ago. Once you're part of my family, you always will be. It's home.
B: What is your Hubbard Hot Take?
JB: Oh, that's an easy piece of advice. My Hubbard hot take is to pop into a PRSSA meeting. There's always something you can learn, always a connection you can make. People think that it’s only for PR majors or if you're certain you want to do that. It’s not. I have two freshmen on the board right now. I also have people from other schools that are not in Hubbard that are part of PRSSA because they love it and understand that communication skills are important to you no matter what you do.
To learn more about Jill Bonham and her work, visit her CLA faculty profile.
Text by Sophia Lozanova, photo by Jessica Chung, Office Hours logo by Reagan Frystak, Backpack student