She's an Inspiration

Every now and then, something happens that makes one realize that one’s work has not been in vain.

Case in point: Last night, a former student of mine – Amy Hennessey – received the Gregg Perry Award of the Hawaii Chapter, Public Relations Society of America, for her lifetime of work in the field.

A lifetime of work ... and she's still young. That in itself is not surprising to me, for Amy has always been stellar in everything she did.

What was surprising was the tribute she paid to me in her acceptance speech. Full of inspiring emotion, it was the deepest kind of gift a person can receive, thoughts from the heart, delivered after years of hard work that I apparently inspired in her.

Amy recalled my talking to her class at the University of Hawaii, a talk that moved her in the direction of public relations as a major. In the years that followed, she took classes from me, achieving excellence each time. She even called me from a national meeting of the student society to ask my advice on whether she should run for a national office.

Everybody in Hawaii public relations knows Amy, and she’s become an inspiration to others, particularly young people … which is exactly what I’d hoped would happen with my students and other young professionals that I've mentored over the years.

Speaking a bit selfishly, Amy is a legacy of mine, I live on through her work. Her young charges are her legacy, but now they are partly mine as well. They may not know or have heard of me, but I live on through them.

Amy took my quotation cards to heart, she even quoted me last night, and as far as I’m concerned, she can use them all (particularly this one) as her own from this point on:

No matter what you’re doing, it’s not enough. Do more, and do it better.

That’s exactly what she did. Congratulations, Amy.