According to Chekesha Rashad, Certified Meeting Professional (CMP), there is two types of people in the world-they’re the dreamers and the “existers.” The “existers” are people who work a nine to five and live for the weekend. Dreamers are those who are willing to sacrifice a lot to achieve their dreams.
Rashad, a 1998 Grambling State University mass communication graduate, and a 2000 graduate of Georgia State University is the owner of CHI2 Events, LLC based in Washington, D.C.
After being gone on a 15-day business trip she drove from Dallas to Grambling State before catching her flight home. Rashad, seized the opportunity to returned to the classroom to share some of her real world experiences.
“I sat in these very same seats, but we didn’t have these computers,” said Rashad. “You have to be that much better at what it is you do.”
Work for Rashad and her classmates were that much more difficult, but that did not stop her from being the first GSU student to land an internship with Nike during her undergrad experience and eventually working the Super Bowl and All-Star game five times.
During her visit she spoke of the highly competitive communications industry, what others are doing to break into the industry, how to market one’s self using social medias and how reality shows gives a false impression of what public relations really is. She also suggested that if one wants to succeed in the communications field they have to be hungry for it.
She went into detail about the hard work, dedication and consistency that one needs to possess and not only while in school, but post graduation. Also, Rashad explain some of the biggest issues seen from graduates.
“The greatest flaw that recent graduates have is “entitlement,” they believe that just because they graduated that they deserve a job,” said Rashad.
She shared with students her own experience in undergrad and how she volunteered her time to better herself everyday to perfect her craft. Rashad said that she saved her rejection letters from employers and that there were so many that they all fell on the floor and all the company logo landed on top of each other.
She believes one day that the collage of letters would be the cover of her book she wants to entitle, “In Pursuit of my Dreams.”
Rashad briefly discussed how as African Americans, “we always have to work harder to prove ourselves,” and as an African American woman, she was able to receive a full ride to Georgia State University because of the need of minorities in the field of sports.
Before her departure, Rashad challenged students to send a one-page letter to her company by e-mail explaining who they were, what they want to do and why they think they deserve an internship. She offered an incentive to house and feed two students.