Q+A: Georgia Wheeler
By Julianna Coyle
It begins with the name.
It seems as though fate led Georgia Wheeler to studying public relations, design and media at the University of Georgia. Although her path to Grady was somewhat untraditional, she believes that everything in her life thus far has happened for a reason and has the intention of making the most of her experience in college and beyond. Between the ups and downs of figuring out her place at UGA, she has taken advantage of the many opportunities she has been given and established bonds with people in a variety of circles.
While she is unsure of the exact route she wants to take in public relations, Wheeler knows which areas she plans to avoid. She looks forward to using her time at Grady to face the challenges of her studies and hone the skills that will best prepare her for her dream career. Wheeler is excited to learn more about how to express her creativity in the digital realm, and take the skills that she learns in Grady to form connections in the corporate world with like-minded Bulldogs.
Wheeler’s love for her family is the driving force in her life and does not plan to put that aside for her career; she intends to have both. Overall, Wheeler’s main focus is pursuing her passions without losing sight of her priorities. Wheeler attributes her candidness to her drive and vision for the life she wishes to lead and speaks on her excitement for her unpredictable future.
Julianna Coyle
So, I was wondering, what led you to declare a PR major?
Georgia Wheeler
It’s actually a funny story. I went in with an advertising intent… Well, I was marketing at first when I first got in freshman year. And then two weeks later I was like, I’m gonna have to take accounting, I don’t want to take accounting. So then I switched to Grady. Then from two weeks into freshman year, I was intended-Advertising. And then I went to this info session and they were like, “Well, even if you’re slightly interested in PR or whatever you should apply with PR is your number one choice because you can’t choose it as your second choice.” So then I did that, because PR is harder to get into. So I did that and then I ended up getting into PR last semester and I was like crap like… I wanted to do advertising but now I’m in PR. Then I just kind of started thinking about it and I was like, honestly like this sounds… much more of what I want to do, like out of my career and life than advertising, so I just felt like it kind of ended up working out.
Coyle
Do you have any idea what area of PR you hope to work in one day?
Wheeler
Not politics, not sports. Those are my two like definite “no.” Because I just don’t like the politics realm and I’m not into sports, but I think something on like the business side or maybe event planning. I’m pretty good at organizing stuff. And I like going up to people and just talking to people, so I think like something where I can just meet a lot of new people and work with other companies, stuff like that.
Coyle
That’s awesome. You also mentioned that you are pursuing a Design and Media Minor. what’s your favorite creative platform, with that?
Wheeler
I’ve used InDesign, like in newspaper when I was in high school, that’s what we used to make our newspaper on so I’m really familiar with InDesign, I like it a lot. It’s pretty good, but like there’s actually a lot of things on the certificate that I don’t know. So I’m learning new things and also knowing all the other stuff. Which is good, because I feel like it just broadens my experience and stuff and makes me, or allows me, to create more things so I really like doing visual stuff. I used to do the big double page spreads in my newspaper, I used to design those. So, mainly just, I don’t know stuff with graphics and stuff, which somehow I want to incorporate into my career, I just don’t know how yet. It makes more sense with advertising, but also, there’s a lot of things I feel like you can do creative wise with a PR degree too.
Coyle
So in an ideal world, what will you be doing five years from now, because I know that 10 is just really far.
Wheeler
Yeah, I thought about this. So I definitely want to be married. In five years it’s kind of like, pretty soon but I just like, I don’t know I want to be married kind of young and have, probably a kid. Those are because I really want to be able to incorporate like family with my career too, and have all the career aspirations that I want, while still being able to like have a family, and be married and stuff like that. That’s important to me, so I want a job where… Ideally, I want to live in Brookhaven area, like Atlanta somewhere. So I’d want to work in Atlanta. Maybe for a firm, to start out, and then I want to eventually own my own firm.
Coyle
That’s so cool. And how do you think that Grady is going to help you achieve that goal?
Wheeler
There are a lot of opportunities with Grady, like a lot of businesses look for Grady grads and it’s just a really good school for like, preparing you for your future and helping you get jobs. I think there’s a lot of outlets to help you achieve, like, your dream job. So I think the classes here will really prepare you. And I just think Grady’s like the best. It’s one of the best journalism/mass communication schools in the nation so I just think it’s like the best option to get you to where you want to be.
