IA student Chloe Oakes honored as Top 5 Outstanding Student in 2025 PRWeek Awards

By Josephine Cioffero

When Chloe Oakes was a freshman, she offhandedly applied to UF Alpha PR, the first alphabetically on the list of public relations organizations to get involved with.

The organization was meant to be a place for her to gain experience in a student-run PR firm and decide which aspect of PR she was interested in. But she quickly became a top leader and standout student in the firm and UF Public Relations Department.

Now in her senior year, Oakes, an Innovation Academy student, was recognized as a top five finalist for the Outstanding Student of the Year Award at the 2025 PRWeek Awards.

“I opened my email when I found out I made it as a finalist, and I was like, ‘This is crazy!’” she said. “It meant a lot to me that I had really taken the time to develop this campaign and come up with these ideas, and they really liked it.”

Oakes was recognized for her “Fit-Checked In” campaign, designed to address the harmful impacts of fast fashion on the environment. As part of her proposal, she conducted primary and secondary research on consumers’ clothes shopping habits and offered solutions to increase the number of times a piece of clothing is worn. Shoppers would be invited to track their outfits online through a digital punch card and share their progress on social media for accountability.

“I’ve always cared about protecting the environment and reducing waste as much as I can,” she said, “but I really think this campaign helped me focus on, ‘Wow! I have a lot of clothes in my closet that I don’t wear. I should really consider if I need to donate these so they can be used by other people more than I would.’”

The most challenging part of this competition, she said, was condensing the most important information and ideas into the six-page requirement.

“I really had to be strategic about which information was most important and thought-out so I could have a more concise campaign,” she said.

She described traveling to New York City to attend the awards ceremony on March 13 as an experience she was incredibly grateful for, especially having the support of the UF Public Relations Department and her campaign adviser, Ian Bailey, during the competition.

“Being able to be in the presence of these incredible people and seeing these amazing campaigns be recognized for the work they’ve done through the year was really rewarding,” she said. “That’s what it’s about for me: surrounding myself with people who care as much as I do and want to be successful like I do.”

But Oakes is no stranger to the city. Last summer, she lived and worked in New York as a strategy and planning intern for Zeno Group, an integrated communications agency with international clients and offices.

“I had an incredible time with my internship,” she said. “I was able to do a lot of research, mostly secondary research for new business pitches on consumer-packaged goods. I got to work with people who really cared about the work they did and who put their everything into every pitch and making sure every detail was perfect.”

Oakes was previously part of the 2024 grand-prize winning team in the Page Society and Institute for Public Relations’ Student Case Study Competition. Her team’s case study was titled “Were Mattel’s Efforts Kenough?” and explored how Mattel reshaped Barbie’s brand and reputation after facing criticism for its lack of inclusivity and unrealistic standards for women.

After her graduation in May, Oakes plans to return to New York and work at a PR agency doing research and strategy.

“I like to call myself a ‘data-driven storyteller,’” she said. “I take all the information, figure it out, research it and learn it, and then I find a way to communicate it in a way that resonates with the audience. I’ve really learned that’s what I’m interested in, and I’ve learned to find more trust and confidence in myself as a leader.”