Rosemary Rys, a Drexel University professor with over 30 years of experience in public relations and marketing, has been changing lives through her passion for PR. She loves seeing how PR can transform people's lives, and she has been able to do just that through her work with students and startups.
Rys has always been a master networker, and she always has someone in mind to connect to or help with any situation. Her extensive experience in agencies, corporations, architectural firms, and personal consulting has given her a wealth of knowledge and expertise that she loves to share with her students. She obtained her B.B.A. in Marketing & Management from the Wharton Business School and a Master's in PR from Rowan University, and has years of extensive experience in public relations.
In 2021, Rys took a chance on one of her students, Paige DeAngelo, and her startup, Aer Cosmetics. Rys had DeAngelo as a student over quarantine, and as a part of her final project, helped her create her social media platform. Thanks to Rys' guidance, Paige’s platforms collectively now run with over 300,000 followers.
Rys and DeAngelo met back again in person in the spring term of 2021, and after hearing of DeAngelo’s startup mission, Rys had the idea to let her students work on the business for the entirety of the term. Quickly, this idea took on a life of its own, and the collaboration became an exciting start for Aer Cosmetics branding, with twelve talented students brainstorming on the potential for the company’s branding.
Rys has allowed DeAngelo and Aer to be the "client" for her courses, teaming her students up to create and strategize with Paige for Aer Cosmetics. Rys said her favorite part about working with students, she said, is "Watching them grow and blossom, seeing the ideas sprout from them." And this is exactly what happened when Rys and DeAngelo collaborated. Rys found that her students were more interested in working with someone their own age, rather than a company that has years of experience. Since their initial collaboration, Rys and DeAngelo have partnered together for four public relations courses at Drexel.
Rys has been able to use her years of advanced experience in public relations to help Aer Cosmetics get off the ground. She has taught her students how to effectively use social media to promote the brand, and she has helped Aer Cosmetics build a loyal following by creating engaging and creative content. Her event planning course helped plan five events for Aer Cosmetics, including a launch party, influencer party, and anniversary celebration. They pitched ideas created by the students have meaningfully impacted the business and allowed Aer Cosmetics to expand on these campaigns created by students to turn them into real events. The students reflected on their time working with a peer’s startup, and a common favorite factor among them was the creative freedom of a startup, allowing them to take risks and truly follow their creative insights when working on the branding of the company.
Rys’ returns the appreciation for her students, like myself, “I like to refer to the very talented Paige DeAngelo as one of my ‘PR Stars.’ She has taken three PR classes and one on Event Planning with me, and it’s been my distinct pleasure to have this budding entrepreneur as our client in all but one of them. We’re very proud of Paige and her success story based on hard work and dedication to her very creative concept, as well as helping to save the environment with Aer Cosmetics’ products. Her peers enjoy working with her very much, and so do I. She epitomizes her catchphrase, ‘Everything is figure-out-able,’ and I know this amazing young Drexel Dragon will continue to make her university, teachers, colleagues, family and friends very proud in her future endeavors.”Rys' work with Aer Cosmetics is just one example of how she is changing lives through PR. Her passion for PR has helped her students gain valuable experience and has helped startups like Aer Cosmetics get off the ground. Rys is a true PR star, and her work with students and startups is just one example of how she is making a difference in the world of public relations.
Consciously yours,
Paige
1 comment
I cannot believe such an influential cosmetic professional was an active part of the Drexel Faculty! Rosemary Rys was absolutely correct in building that following behind her brand. The best way to get businesses into the spotlight in the modern day is to gauge interests through the algorithm, and it works for many who understand how it works. I would like to learn a bit about this from Professor Rys herself, so I look forward to anything more she may have to say regarding expanding online reach.