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Ava’s Portfolio
All About me
 My name is Ava Villella, and I am a dedicated and motivated freshman from Southern Massachusetts, currently pursuing a degree in Public Relations at Roger Williams University, class of 2029. As a former Franklin High School graduate and varsity athlete, I bring a strong work ethic and team-oriented mindset to all my endeavors.Â
My passion lies in sports media and graphic design, where I have hands-on experience with media coverage, campaign analysis, and content creation from my time in high school. I am committed to excelling in communication and building meaningful relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers to secure positive media exposure in the PR field.Â
Being a member of the varsity soccer team at Roger Williams has sharpened my leadership skills and understanding of teamwork, which I apply to my academic and professional growth. I am eager to leverage my unique combination of athletic discipline and media skills to contribute effectively to any public relations or communications team.Â
RWU Soccer
The Roger Williams woman’s soccer team is a competitive member of the CNE. Recent highlights include being ranked in the top five in their regional poll and having multiple players named to All-Conference teams in 2024.
RWU PRSSA
Our organization is dedicated to building a strong PR community, fostering professional development, and facilitating networking opportunities nationwide. We host various events, attend conferences, and provide valuable resources and support for both students and alumni. Join us today and take your PR career to the next level!
All About Excel and How I Would Show This to an Employer
Exploring Nike's sales: In this excel spreadsheet, you can find the month, the product line, estimates shoes sold, and average price per shoe. I used ChatGPT to create this spreadsheet and it very flexible if I want to create pivot tables and charts.
What I know
As I analyzed the data, clear patterns emerged. Lifestyle and Jordan Brand shoes consistently generated higher revenue per unit, even with lower sales volume, which highlighted the impact of brand equity and cultural identity. In contrast, running and training shoes sold in higher volume, reflecting more functional, everyday consumer demand.
I also noticed strong seasonal trends, with sales increasing in late summer and fall. From a PR and marketing perspective, that insight could guide campaign timing, media outreach, and product launch strategies.
Excel was the backbone of the project—it helped me organize data, compare categories, and turn raw numbers into clear, actionable insights. I also used AI responsibly to support dataset creation and structure, while all analysis and conclusions were my own.
Overall, this project reinforced how data strengthens storytelling and strategic decision-making, which is a skill set I’m excited to bring into a professional PR or marketing environment.
Using Excel in PR
First, the data can be used to identify priority product stories. By comparing unit sales and revenue across product lines, PR teams can determine which products have the strongest consumer interest versus which rely more heavily on brand prestige. For example, high-volume running and training shoes present opportunities for performance-focused storytelling, while higher-priced lifestyle and Jordan Brand shoes lend themselves to narratives around culture, identity, and brand legacy.
Second, the spreadsheet helps inform campaign timing and media pitching. The month-to-month sales patterns reveal seasonal trends that PR professionals can align with press outreach. If sales spike during late summer and fall, that period becomes an ideal window for product launches, influencer partnerships, and feature pitches to lifestyle, sports, or business media outlets.
Third, this data supports audience segmentation and message framing. Functional shoes with higher unit sales suggest a broad, utility-driven audience, while premium footwear reflects a more niche, value-driven consumer. Understanding these differences allows PR professionals to tailor messaging—whether emphasizing innovation and performance or exclusivity and cultural relevance.
Pivot table
I used a PivotTable to quickly aggregate sales and revenue by product line. This allowed me to compare volume versus value, which is especially useful in PR and marketing when deciding which products deserve performance-based messaging versus brand storytelling.
How Ai is useful in Excel in the Future
AI is transforming Excel from a manual spreadsheet tool into a more intuitive, insight-driven platform. In the future, AI will help users clean and organize data automatically, identify patterns and trends faster, and generate charts, summaries, and forecasts with minimal input. Instead of spending time on repetitive tasks, users will be able to focus on interpreting results and making strategic decisions.
AI also makes Excel more accessible by allowing users to ask questions in plain language—such as identifying top-performing products or predicting future outcomes—without advanced formula knowledge. This will be especially valuable in fields like public relations and marketing, where professionals need quick, data-backed insights to support storytelling, campaign planning, and performance reporting.
Overall, AI enhances efficiency, accuracy, and creativity in Excel while still requiring human judgment to contextualize and communicate insights effectively.
How I used X Lookup in This Data set
 This allows Excel to return revenue for a specific product in a specific month, which is especially useful for campaign tracking or monthly reporting. I used XLOOKUP to create a dynamic reporting tool where stakeholders can select a product line or time period and instantly see performance results. It reduces manual work and makes data easier to interpret and present.
Why This Matters in PR
Enables fast performance reporting
Supports data-backed storytelling
Helps tailor campaign timing and messaging
Makes presentations cleaner and more professional
Why Excel is Important in PR Branding
Excel is important in public relations branding because it turns creativity and messaging into strategy backed by evidence. Strong brands aren’t built on intuition alone—they’re built on insight, consistency, and measurement, and Excel helps PR professionals do all three.
First, Excel helps PR teams understand audiences. By organizing data from surveys, social media engagement, website traffic, or sales trends, PR professionals can identify who is engaging with a brand, when they engage, and what messaging resonates most. This allows branding efforts to feel intentional and audience-focused rather than generic.
Second, Excel supports brand storytelling and positioning. Branding is about perception, and Excel helps track how that perception shifts over time. PR teams can compare campaign performance, track sentiment trends, and measure awareness before and after initiatives. These insights help refine brand narratives and ensure messaging aligns with consumer values and behaviors.
Third, Excel is essential for campaign planning and timing. By analyzing seasonal trends, media coverage spikes, or product performance data, PR professionals can strategically time brand launches, media pitches, and influencer partnerships. This makes branding efforts more impactful and relevant.
Example of an X Lookup I Conducted in Class
Below is an example of an X Lookup I conducted in class. It shows the employees and where to find each employee specifically. I used Ai to create different XLookup levels (basic, and mastery) to show just how deep into detail an XLookup can get into and how much data it can present once you master it correctly.
