"My journey from Jagran Lakecity University to University of the Arts London, UK": Tanya Goyal (BAJMC III Semester), School of Media and Communication

The dream was no longer a dream when I actually boarded the flight from Delhi to London, everything seemed perfect. All I could think throughout was how thankful I am to Jagran Lakecity University for giving me this opportunity to go for this three weeks Public Relations and Advertising Summer School Programme at The London College of Communication (LCC), University of the Arts London.

The complete duration of the flight was spent in the thoughts of the city of dreams. 9 hours later, I landed at terminal 2 of the London Heathrow Airport, trust me when I say, “It’s a never-ending terminal.” I was shortly done with immigration and out of the airport in a black hybrid Toyota. It took me around 45 minutes to reach King’s cross from Heathrow, where my homestay with a British family was arranged. 
Everything was perfect, from the streets to houses to even the smallest of details. The lady of the house, Miss. Natalie was a sweetheart. She lived with her 8-year-old daughter, Isabelle. They welcomed me with a cup of coffee and showed me around in the evening.

Next morning was my first day at the London College of Communication, situated at Elephant and Castle, which was six stops away via tube from King’s cross. We were given a short orientation to the Summer Program which included an introduction to all students and an overview of LCC, followed by a tour of the college. I had already met a few girls before the orientation and luckily they all were from my course.

Soon, it was time for our first lecture. We were a total of five girls; Ana from Mexico, Shuwan from China, Valeria from Peru and Wad from Saudi Arabia along with me.

Our Advertising lecturer was Andy. He started his lecture by explaining about Agencies, and how to work with them. He also told us that it’s always efficient to work in agencies instead of working individually because reaching a conclusion with a team is easier than working alone. He divided the five of us into two agencies for giving us an insight into how an advertising agency works and its departments. My partner was Valeria and we named our agency, “Translation”. He navigated us through various aspects of advertising for the next three weeks. We designed a poster for a company, wrote a copy for it, designed content-based ads, designed a comedy Ad for a serious topic like Cancer or Dementia, and made a quick & short film on “Fake news”. We even designed a social media campaign for the brand “Corona”. We were taught about various advertising semiotics as well. Andy also took us for an Industrial visit to The JWT i.e. The J. Walter Thomson situated at South Kensington, where we were told about “Brand Ads” and how digital marketing has boomed over the recent years.

In the last week, we were taken for a Pink Floyd exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

It was the best exhibition I had ever seen. Being a Pink Floyd fan myself, I just couldn't stop being mesmerized by the exuberance. It was a beautiful experience!

Our Public Relations lectures were taken by Ruth. She was the best to learn Fashion PR from. The lecture started with an introduction to “Press Release”, post that we were instructed to write three press releases each. When compared to Andy, Ruth’s classes were serious. She told us all about Luxury fashion and High Street Fashion PR. Her guidelines on how to cover an event, making of a look-book, types of a press release, making a media list and designing an invite were a few of our major lessons. two group assignments given to us post lectures were sufficient to put our knowledge to test. Ruth organized two guest lectures for strategic planning, one with Mrs. Gaelle, Senior PR Manager, Chopard and another with Mr. Tanner, crisis management professional and Political PR for Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith from the UK Labor Party. During our last week, writing industry-standard curriculum vitae and cover letters were taught to us.

This was an outline of my experience at a Summer School Programme. I sincerely thank Jagran Lakecity University for giving me an opportunity to explore the details of my course internationally. Travelling globally isn’t just about knowledge, but also about the sense of independence that we feel being in an unknown continent all by ourselves. I highly recommend students to go for such programmes, they enhance you completely!

Tanya Goyal

BAJMC (III Semester),
School of Media and Communication,

Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal.

Glimpse of my journey and experiences in London during the Summer School Programme.... :-)