Meet CUtting Edge Communication, the Student-Run PR Agency
Sara Bauknecht said she loves what she calls “lightbulb moments,” those times when students realize their work in the classroom prepared them for jobs out in the world.
“That’s exciting, when I see students really connect those dots between what we’re doing in the class and experiences they’re having in freelance work or professional jobs beyond Chatham,” said Bauknecht, an assistant professor in Chatham’s School of Arts, Science, & Business.
Take Dylan Vogel ’24, who majors in communication with minors in photography and public relations. At CUtting Edge, the student-run PR agency that operates in one of Bauknecht’s classes, Vogel learned how much he enjoys doing something different every day.
“We had a variety of things we did for a variety of different clients, from media outreach to PR to event support,” Vogel said.
That ability to stay on his toes helped him at his job at All-American Baseball, where he’s worked since summer 2023. The baseball training facility offered Vogel a job doing digital media work when he graduates.
Vogel came to Chatham to play baseball. He ended up falling in love with the Shadyside campus and, during his work in CUtting Edge, he found his passion for public relations work.
“I think the projects we’ve done here to help some Chatham organizations, like the Communiqué […] we did PR work for them and have run events for them,” he said. “That was fun. That felt meaningful because they are a student-run organization. I felt connected with that.”
Bauknecht has overseen the agency for a few years, but this spring was when they announced the name, fully incorporated the class into the communication program, and began giving it a brand identity. Like other students in the agency, Vogel took on a variety of roles, from writing to event planning.
Sara Bauknecht is an assistant professor at Chatham, where she teaches journalism, public relations, and communication theory.
“At a true integrated agency, you are going to see these different roles and responsibilities,” Bauknecht said. “Maybe if you work in those spaces, you’re filling one or two of them, but you still need to know how all of the parts work together and support one another. That’s what we explore in the integrated aspects of our agency.”
Bauknecht said she likes seeing students discover different ways they can use their communication skills. Jade Lombardo ’24 found herself surprised by how much she enjoyed event planning.
“I have done a bit of everything,” she said. “Sara does encourage everyone to get a little bit of experience everywhere. What’s so great about this is, we’re students. It’s a learning environment. Now is the time to see, do I like event planning? Do I like graphic design? Do I like the writing side?
“What I like is that you get to be part of any group you want to,” she continued. “Being so early in my career, this is the first agency experience I’ve had. It’s nice to be able to have a little bit of experience everywhere, because when I go into internship or job interviews and say I have experience doing these things, they’re impressed by that.”
Bauknecht, whose own resume includes writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and running her own communication consulting business, said she pulls from her own experience in agencies and journalism to create interactions with clients that reflect what students can expect to do as professionals.
At a recent internship at Big Picture Media, Lombardo found this out herself when she was working on a pitch deck—something she’d already done in preparation for CUtting Edge’s open house in April.
“When I was going through and working on the one for Big Picture Media, I was like, this is so similar to the one that I was working on [for CUtting Edge],” she said. “It had all the same sections and information.”
Call it a lightbulb moment.
Learn more about Chatham University’s Bachelor of Communication, which allows students to explore opportunities in journalism, public relations, graphic design, and more.