Q +A Rachael Jones

By Edwin LaCroix

Rachael Jones aspires to become an event planner and a PR agent at a top agency. Standing in her way is a long stretch of schooling.

A busy campus leader and second-year public relations major, Jones has many things she wants to tackle. Motivated by her talent for planning, Jones hopes to hone her skills to one day transition into a high profile job. She is currently holding an executive position for her sorority Delta Zeta as head of events and programs. She also makes time for UGA Miracle and PRSSA. She feels like she can “make time for everything”.

A high-school advisor pushed UGA’s great program early on. She knew she wanted to apply to Grady and attend the University of Georgia. She immediately applied to the public relations program once she was eligible and got in. She started out in newspaper in highschool and came into college with her strong passion for communications.

“For pretty much for all of Senior year I wanted to be in Grady. It was around my junior year when I decided I wanted to go to UGA”, said Jones.

Jones wants to be the architect of her own dreams and of the campus too. She has some ideas of her own on what could be redesigned for the better on campus. Jones wants to use her creativity to fuel her other creative pursuits later on in life. Her dream career is to become a wedding planner. She’s finding ways to manage herself in a big school and making strides towards her dreams.

Edwin LaCroix

What made you apply to Grady?

Rachael Jones:

I had a teacher in high school, who was our newspaper advisor and I did newspaper from sophomore year through senior year. He was a UGA grad and raved about Grady and since he was our journalism advisor, he knew all about it. He was also part of the reason why I wanted to go to Georgia too, because he would talk about it all the time. So, for pretty much for all of Senior year I wanted to be in Grady. It was around my Junior year when I decided I wanted to go to UGA, because it took me a while to be like, “Oh I could go to a big school. Before that, I was like , No, No, like I wanted a small school and UGA is too big. There’s too many people here from highschool, but I love it now.

LaCroix:

What is your first career choice? Why?

Jones:

If I could choose, I will most likely end up working for a PR agency or in, like, a corporate communications department. Those are, like, my practical jobs, but my dream job is to be an event planner. If I spend a little time in the corporate world, then I would like to open my own event planning company and be, like , a wedding planner, corporate parties, and have my own event space.

LaCroix: Where is your ideal location? Post Grad, career wise?

Jones:

I will probably end up coming back to Atlanta because there’s a lot of really good opportunities for PR here. I think companies like Coke and Delta are super great and I would love to be able to work for them. That’s, like, my big picture, but wherever life takes me I would be flexible. Like, if I got a job offer in New York or LA or something that would be cool. Like, LA, New York, Atlanta, like, Chicago, like, any big city.

LaCroix: How do you balance your work life and student life?

Jones:

I don’t know how I do it. I feel like I do a lot. A lot of times, I feel like I’m running places. Besides classes, like I’m involved in a couple clubs, like I do UGA miracle. I’m in PRSSA, which I go to on Tuesday nights, Miracles on Wednesday nights. I’m pretty heavily involved in my sorority, I’m sure you’re probably going to get to that, but, um, that’s another big chunk of my time, but I feel like I just break it all up and like I do a lot of homework during like my meals. I’ll go home and eat lunch and while I’m doing work and stuff. But I feel like I make time for everything.

LaCroix: What made you join Delta Zeta?

Jones:

Okay, I’m going to do a little recruitment thing and like, I wouldn’t say I always was like, Oh, I’m such a sorority girl. Like, I just kind of did it because like, that’s what all my friends were doing and I was like I would regret it if I didn’t. And I ended up loving it. My roommate last year has the same story as me and I made really good friends from it, but I’ve also turned it into a leadership position I want. Now, I’m the Vice President of programs, so I’m in charge of all of our events, which helps with my event planning side. I really like being organized and helping coordinate all of these different programs that we do. So that’s fun. And, like I planned our parents weekend this year, which was a lot of work, but like I had to like contact venues and figure out prices and paying them and getting insurance and paperwork and all this stuff, so like I really enjoyed doing that.