Student Lauren Tritch used unknowns of the pandemic as an opportunity to grow

Monday, October 26, 2020 - 6:45am

By Kaitlin Van Loon

In March 2020 senior advertising and public relations major Lauren Tritch was in Dublin, Ireland studying abroad for the spring semester of her junior year. 

When she got the news her program would be cut short and that she’d be going back home to Minnesota, she went through a series of different emotions.

Tritch relayed that being in Europe helped her see the firsthand effect of the pandemic before the severity of the situation hit the United States. For example, her friends studying in Italy had to quickly evacuate and some even ended up in Ireland before going back to the U.S.

“It hit me that this was not something that would just go away,” Tritch said. “This was something that was unprecedented so I needed to adapt, and I think knowing that from the start helped me shift my mindset before I even got back home.”

Tritch also knew that she needed to look at the pandemic from every diverse perspective she could find. To her, understanding meant staying connected with her network, continuing to ask questions, and reminding herself to be cognizant because the pandemic is something the entire world is battling. 

“I’m not special in this,” Tritch said. “Everyone else is going through this too and we need to lean on each other and work through this together.”

When Tritch found out her summer internship in NYC with Weber Shandwick was cancelled she allowed herself a moment to be upset, but knew she didn’t want to spend her entire summer feeling that way.

“I remember thinking, I can’t hold myself back just because I’m upset right now,” Tritch said. “I can’t put myself in a position to not grow.” 

Tritch, searching for learning opportunities, immediately reached out to her network—including CoJMC faculty members like Jemalyn Griffin, friends who had recently graduated and LinkedIn connections she’d made throughout her time in college.

Tritch is president of UNL’s Public Relations Students Society of America (PRSSA) chapter and Griffin is the club’s faculty advisor. One of the first summer projects Tritch and the PRSSA executive team worked on was a social media campaign to encourage students to #SpreadHopeNotFear.

Trtich ended up finding a few more opportunities to help grow her skills in advertising, public relations and further. Tritch completed the PR Council Agency-Ready Certificate Program and she was a summer intern for student-led agency Jacht. And Weber Shandwick invited Tritch to participate in a six-week fellowship program towards the end of the summer. Tritch also had the chance to explore subjects she had always been interested in, for example, she took an online coding class so she could learn HTML and CSS. 

“I wanted to continue building my network, but more than that I wanted to build relationships with people.” Tritch said. “The pandemic presented a really unique opportunity for me to connect with professionals because we all were going through a similar experience with Covid.”

The end goal for Tritch is to live in NYC, which is why building her network is so important to her. She spent a large chunk of her time over the summer making new connections at companies she’s interested in learning more about. Her commitment to networking extends because she makes a habit to follow-up and check-in with people she’s already made connections with.

“I think one of the biggest things CoJMC has taught me is that your network is everything,” Tritch said. “I know that because I’m a Midwesterner,  getting to the East coast is going to take extra effort and I want to be prepared.”

Tritch has continued her summer dedication to growing through the fall semester with her ambitions. She has a virtual internship as a pathway intern at Nelnet, and as PRSSA president she plans virtual events with the team.


Here’s how you can connect with Lauren:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Watch Lauren in UNL’s One-to-One campaign below.

Lauren Tritch