'Great idea' gives MSVU students a voice

Online publication picks up where newspaper left off

Kelly Lynch oversees her great idea. Photo Bill McEwen

Kelly Lynch has a degree in great ideas. Now, she's using one of her own to bring fellow students together. 

The St. Thomas University graduate, who majored in English and great ideas, is now a third-year student in Mount Saint Vincent University's public relations program.

She created an online publication, called Symmetry, designed to help students in her program practice what they're being taught in class.

"I wanted to help people in my program improve their skill set and just bring the community together," she says.

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An online publication, Symmetry provides a forum for PR students at Mount Saint Vincent University. Photo Bill McEwen

The website publishes articles written by students, staff and some industry professionals.   It focuses on the role the communications industry plays in people's lives.

"A lot of people don't know how the communications industry affects them," she says.

She wants to give the students a forum where they can "create, communicate and collaborate."

Student writers "difficult to find"

The university has a spotty track record when it comes to keeping student papers alive.

Kenney Fitzpatrick, general manager of Mount Saint Vincent's student union, used to publish a campus newspaper called The Sentinel. But he was forced to kill the paper because nobody was reading it.

"Students are getting their news elsewhere.  We're competing with The Coast, Metro and a bunch of other student-run newspapers, " he says.

He also had trouble finding dedicated writers.

Success online

Lynch says she wasn't discouraged by the sad state of the Mount's student media.  After getting her professor's approval and support, she started recruiting student contributors for Symmetry from her class.

She realized busy schedules were a key reason why students couldn't commit to The Sentinel so she decided to put her publication online.

On Sept. 29, Symmetry went live. It got more than 1,600 hits that day.

Almost a month later there are nearly 30 posts on the site. Many of them focus on lessons the students learned during their semester-long co-op stints at public relations offices around the city.  Other posts include a breakdown of Irving's "Ship's Start Here" campaign and a description of how the Bluenose II is leveraging online tools to promote itself.

Alison DeLory, a graduate student in the communications department, is impressed with the publication because it reinforces what they're being taught in class. 

"It's an application of what they're learning. We're trained to 'show don't tell' and that's what they're doing," she says.

William Murray, an assistant professor in the business and tourism department at Mount Saint Vincent University, says he is "amazed at the level of initiative, creativity and hunger for writing" that Symmetry displays.

For now, Lynch is funding the publication out of her own pocket. But faculty members are supporting her and may be able to reimburse her in the future if readership continues to grow.

Lynch plans to continue working on establishing the publication's base and will be heading to classrooms over the next few months to recruit more contributors and readers.

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