Q+A: Julianna Coyle
By Georgia Wheeler
Unlike a lot of University of Georgia students, Julianna Coyle came from out of state to attend college.
“I found Georgia by chance on social media, and I became obsessed with it. Then I just decided that I had to take the leap to come here,” said Coyle, who was born in Long Island, New York.
Coyle has utilized her strong work ethic in many involvements at UGA during her time here. She is a second year public relations major with a music business certificate, and she participates in PRSSA and Tour Stop. She also serves as Gamma Phi Beta’s public relations executive member.
When asked what made her want to come to UGA, Coyle mentioned that she loved the lifestyle and culture of the school community.
“When I visited, it literally seemed like colleges that you see in movies”, Coyle said. “I didn’t know about half the educational opportunities that they had at the time.”
Many students from both in state and out of state can often start to feel homesick or lonely their freshman year, but Coyle had some unique experiences to help her combat this issue. Coyle met her roommate on Instagram, and the two became instantly very close. She also became close friends with her freshman year hallmates, who were all also out of state. She mentioned that they all encouraged each other to become involved in activities on campus.
“To me, that was such a game changer in my process”, she said. “I just got really lucky. I never really felt lonely.”
I spoke with Coyle about her experiences and involvement at UGA. Below is an edited version of our conversation.
Georgia Wheeler
What made you want to do PR?
Julianna Coyle
Well, I randomly, I don’t even know how I found PR. I know that two of my friends were going to be pre-Grady, they didn’t know what major they were yet and, like I’ve always loved social media and like creative media and event planning. I’ve been doing that my whole life without even realizing it. Once I realized that politics was just not something that I could do for the rest of my life, I just researched Grady majors, and when I saw PR I was like, I think that’s what I was meant to do.
Wheeler
So what do you do for exec on your sorority? What led you to become the PR exec member on your sorority, and what do you do for that?
Coyle
So, whenever I’m in a club or like a group or something I always have to just be annoying and try to get a leadership position. Like, I don’t like to just be a part of something I like to make an impact on whatever I do. So I was the PR VP assistant in my sorority last year, and I gained a lot of experience through that. I realized that it’s not an easy job, but I couldn’t imagine not doing it almost after having that experience last year. So I ran, and I got it. It’s definitely been different than what I was expecting like it’s a huge job. I do all the event planning, budgeting, and all the social media posts and reaching out to people involved, like alumni. It’s a really big job. It feels like it’s not a volunteer position. I know that like, even though it’s not easy, it’s definitely something that a lot of people who don’t understand Greek life in general wouldn’t understand how much of a good stepping stone this actually is when it comes to practicing for what I want to do.
Wheeler
How much time would you say you devote per week to doing stuff for the position?
Coyle
Like equal or more than my homework. I would say like, at least two or three hours a day I’m doing stuff, especially during right now. We have parents weekend coming up, so I’ve been planning that and coordinating trunk show people for that, and I have to get tickets for events and budget events for like 300 girls, so it’s a lot.
Wheeler
So what kind of things with music business do you want to do, and how do you plan to implement that with PR?
Coyle
So like, I actually never knew that it could be a career, and I didn’t even know that it was a certificate here until I saw tour stop in an ad for something. So, when I was younger, I used to have Stan Twitter accounts for like celebrities and different bands. It started with One Direction, and I was seriously in that world like I had thousands of followers on Twitter, and I was so dedicated to that. That’s actually what I wrote my Grady essay about, so I would say that was the beginning of me realizing what I wanted to do, which is entertainment PR and PR for musicians, specifically promoting an album, coordinating, and booking events for celebrities, but mostly musicians.
Wheeler
Yeah. So, would you say that would be your dream job?
Coyle
Yeah. I know exactly where I want to work. So, I don’t know necessarily what I want to do because there’s so many different routes you can take, but I want to work for an agency like CAA. That’s the one that I’m so obsessed with. It stands for Creative Artists Agency, so they have different bases. I know they have one in Nashville, and they have one in Manhattan. It’s like you represent, artists of different genres, like in Nashville it’s more country artists. In New York, it’s more like rap/ hip hop. I wouldn’t mind either. Yeah I would just love to work for an agency that focuses on representing an artist throughout their whole entire career. That’d be so fun.
