Laura Tichy-Smith, M.A.

This video and the accompanying downloadable handout documents provide an example of how I teach when I am live in front of a classroom of people. In this presentation, I am teaching a highly specific genre of writing (press releases) in a workshop tailored to the needs of a distinct audience (people with "STEM" degrees who are involved in environmental education).

 

I presented this version of my workshop, "Getting Covered: Learn How to Gain Free Media Coverage for Your Nonprofit's Events," at the 2017 League of Environmental Educators of Florida conference. The audience for the presentation consisted primarily of the managerial staff members of nature centers and of volunteers running various types of "kitchen table" environmental nonprofits. In the presentation, I teach this audience how to write professional press releases that will be more likely to garner attention for their nonprofit organizations from the media. I began formulating this workshop and the accompanying do-it-yourself press release kit because I discovered that people who are educated in "STEM" fields often lack the necessary writing training to craft effective, much less complete, press releases. However, without sending properly written press releases, their organizations will be overlooked for the vital free publicity that comes from having information about their nonprofits and their events picked up by the local media. By sharing knowledge from my background in English and journalism, I have been able to help people at these environmental nonprofits solve the puzzle of how to gain free media coverage.