Sorry for the delayed post of my East Coast adventure...alas, here it is
My time of preparation for this trip was quite short and made very difficult by the onset of a severe head and chest cold. I lost my voice completely, and was coughing, sneezing, and blowing all my energy away. But despite how horrible I was feeling, I drove to Orange County and spent the day back at school meeting with various professors to get advice for each aspect of my presentation. The professor in whose class I wrote this project was very helpful and encouraging and even paraded me around the Comm department, introducing me to the new Assistant Dean and even set up an interview with the editor of the website and alumni newsletter who will be writing a feature story on me. All of this would have been much more flattering if I was able to pronounce words and not cough loudly and uncontrollably. I spent the rest of the weekend drinking tea and sleeping as much as possible at my best friend Jenna's house, and with some emergency anti-biotics from my Aunt, I was feeling better and at least slightly presentable as I drove to LAX at 4:30am on Monday morning.
My non-stop flight to JFK was all together uneventful, and upon arrival I met another finalist from USC as we waited for the car to take us to the hotel. We arrived at the Roger Smith Hotel with only an hour and a half to get ready for our dinner, so I didn't have time to do any exploring. Before dinner was the first time the 5 of us we are introduced, the other 3 finalists were from UNC, Oklahoma State, and Oswego University. We were driven to Soho for dinner at a Latin Fusion restaurant where we were joined by 3 women from Hill&Knowlton and 3 from PRWeek Magazine, of which 3 were judges. When we got back to the hotel, I spent several hours in the lobby preparing and got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep.
The morning came early as we had to be checked out and ready to go at 8am. The 15 walk to and from the Hill&Knowlton offices was the only time we spent outside, but it was a beautiful winter day in the city, cold and snowy but enchanting all the same. I would really like to spend some real time in a big city I think. Upon arriving at the office, we were brought into a small conference room where we would be waiting for the rest of the day, except for the few times we were in front of the judges.
The first part of the day was the 30 minute presentation. I went 4th and felt this was by far my best part of the day. I felt calm and steady and confident in my ideas. The judges had positive feedback and relatively easy questions, I felt great leaving the room. The second part was the editor pitch, the only portion i felt nervous and under prepared for. Our target was Matt Boyle, a business editor for BusinessWeek Magazine, and it was his goal to be the toughest, rudest, more insensitive, and unnecessarily harsh journalist that he could be. Needless to say, he succeeded in his goal with all but 1 of us. Luckily, we were all able to laugh with each other and brush it off our shoulders. The final part of the day was a crisis response simulation, in which we had 10 minutes to respond. During this portion, I felt tired and distracted and it showed to the judges. While I thought I understood and had a good plan for the big picture, there were a few obvious details that I overlooked. After leaving the office at 2:30, we only had about an hour to wait for the car to the airport, so the remaining 3 of us enjoyed a well deserved drink in the hotel bar.
I arrived back at JFK around 4:30 for a 6:30 flight, only to be delayed over 9 hours due to icing on the planes. I finally got back to LA at 6 in the morning, just in time for a beautiful west coast sunset. Overall, I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of corporate life in an industry I really believe I can thrive in. I am so thankful for this experience and flattered by this consideration.
All that being said, I was not chosen as one of the top 2 to return to NY in March for the PRWeek Awards. I'm not disappointed or upset in any way. I'm happy to be able to stay focused on my next step of going to Europe for now, and am so excited to see what happens as a result of this experience in my future career. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support, as always it is greatly appreciated. 
This was my hotel room...the bed was amazing!!
