Junior Pavitra Reddy and seniors Remy Milburn, Angela Sampers, and Maria Estevez are representing DePaul as Team Advocate at the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Bateman Competition by bringing awareness to their campaign with a podcast.

The team received The Lymphoma Research Foundation as this year’s campaign client in October and researched lymphoma and the lives of those affected by it until January. They implemented their campaign from Feb. 7 to March 11 and will undergo a judging process until April. After a judging process, three teams are chosen as finalists and will present their campaigns to the client. The client receives the rights to the winner’s campaign ideas.

Along with their campaign, Team Advocate chose to bring awareness to the lifestyle and struggles of lymphoma patients through their podcast, “Lymphaudio.” Each episode is an interview with a different lymphoma patient. The addition of the podcast brought new perspectives and a level of personal connection to the campaign for the team who previously did not know much about lymphoma.

More than 100,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with lymphoma each year, according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation. 70,000 young adults and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year, and lymphoma represents one-in-five of these cancer diagnoses.

“When we initially did research…it was almost hard for us to relate because none of us really knew anyone with lymphoma,” Reddy said. “It took us a minute to kind of like realign our thoughts and…put ourselves into their shoes.”

In the first and third episodes of “Lymphaudio,” “In Conversation with Melissa ” and “In Conversation with Jessica,” patients Melissa and Jessica both claimed to not know much about their diagnoses. The team’s research revealed most people are not at all familiar with the disease or its symptoms. Through the podcast, the team came to understand how each individual’s journey with lymphoma is different.

“The real message that we want to get out to the public is [that] lymphoma is a blood cancer that affects young adults and adolescents…and many people don’t know about the symptoms,” Estevez said. “They can confuse it with their normal daily activities and they don’t go to the doctor.”

Properly advocating for lymphoma patients was an important part of the team’s campaign. The group used social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, to find lymphoma support groups and connect with patients who were willing to be interviewed. As the podcast gained popularity among the lymphoma community, more people affected by the disease have reached out to the team. The podcast allowed patients to shed light on their individual struggles against the disease.

“Almost all of them have brought up the advice of advocating for yourself,” Sampers said.

Though the team spread their message to DePaul students through their table set up on Tuesdays and Thursdays on the Lincoln Park and Loop campuses, they believe “Lymphaudio” is an important and effective way of encouraging young adults to familiarize themselves with lymphoma.

“I’ve heard a few stories of people having itchiness,” Milburn said. “If someone was having those symptoms and they listen to the podcast, that might encourage them to go get checked out because they’re hearing someone’s real story.”

The team’s campaign emphasized advocating for and capturing the attention of people, including college students. Instead of having a popular influencer be the face of the campaign, the team agreed it was more effective to highlight the lives of lymphoma patients who do not have a large social following.

“We thought about trying to find an influential person,” Reddy said. “All four of us kind of agreed that it would be a lot more impactful if we just had a mom from New Jersey.”

Not only had Team Advocate gained connections with the podcast guests, but they also reflected on the impact they made throughout the campaign.

“I don’t think we realized how much it would impact us when we first started planning it and once we got it started,” Milburn said. “But once our first episode [was] released, it really hit home how much this meant to us and the community…When we’re writing our campaigns off like I genuinely feel like we’ve done something.”

Judges will select three team finalists in April and results will be posted to the PRSSA website. The selected finalists will virtually present their campaigns to judges in May, and first, second and third-place teams will be chosen. Winning teams are recognized during the Awards Ceremony at the PRSSA 2022 International Conference in October.