The University of Rhode Island Department of Professional and Public Writing held a panel discussion on Tuesday, Feb. 27, where alumni and students weighed in on the importance of diversity and writing in the workplace.
Prospective and undergraduate students gathered for the discussion led with a keynote from Sherri Craig, assistant professor of rhetoric and writing at Virginia Tech.
Within the opening keynote, Craig spoke to students about the importance of not letting workplace standards deceive them from bringing diversity into writing.
“Learning about diversity within college classes can be helpful to being prepared for the complexities of the workplace, but it can also present unrealistic expectations of the attention the company places on working with diversity,” Craig said.“For me as an author, my team as an author, we can do something different. We can do something more, that might be the entry point.”
The panelists met in the Memorial Union Ballroom, and discussed frequently finding themselves in these difficult situations.
Modern-day writers such as URI alum Naleen Camara often have to put up a fight in their work, whether that means switching jobs for a better situation or staying motivated when things get difficult. After leaving her job at Howard University in the Administrative Manager Faculty Practice Plan, Camara decided to switch to working as a Social Media Specialist for the railroad system, Amtrak.
“I kind of fell into that role and it wasn’t intentional, it had fallen within my bandwidth in my resume,” Camara said. “I feel like you have to create your why and you have to be your own motivation.”
The panel discussion also featured URI alum, Sylvia Vaccaro, who now works at URI Undergraduate Admission and Michael Falaye, a PriceWaterhouseCoopers Cybersecurity, Risk, & Regulatory Investigations & Forensics Associate. Undergraduate students, Olaitan Moshood and Ebeneezer Falaye also contributed to the discussion.
To emphasize how diversity in the workplace is more than just a simple change, Craig contrasted Ben and Jerry’s responses to racism with Aunt Jemima’s name change.
“They [Ben and Jerry’s] say things that are quite a bit different from the statements that come out of Quaker Oats, that come out of Aunt Jemima,” Craig said. “It’s a real world corporate response where they are not only saying things but trying to evoke emotion and empathy at a time where people were really asking for it, versus ‘We’re gonna change our packaging; still buy our pancakes.’”
Diversity, Craig said, isn’t just about representing people but representing their language.
Wongo Okon, a music journalist works to do exactly that through management of his company’s Search Engine Optimization. With SEO, Okon helps find a language that fits a general audience, by determining keywords and other factors that will help his company’s posts become recognized. SEO helps format polls and articles in such a way where they accurately represent what people want to hear, he said.
“Students can know that writing helps add to whatever major that they already have or whatever skills that they already have,” Natage Hibbert said. “It’s just enhancing the average student honestly.”
Hibbert is a fourth-year at URI triple majoring in writing, political science and public relations. Working along Genoa Shepley, the department chair for URI’s Professional and Public Writing Department, Hibbert and two other students have been creating a project through research so that the writing major can be campaigned towards all students,
“This event would not have been possible if it had not been for the passion of three writing majors,” Shepley said.
“The conversation around diversity and writing isn’t a common one,” Craig said. “I think in light of the events that we’ve all experienced since 2020 it should be a more common conversation and a conversation that’s as rich and has as much attention around it as this event did.”
The event lasted roughly two hours, including a full room of students among many majors involving curiosity, questions, and thoughts.
“I think it’s always fun to walk into a room as someone who’s visiting the University and see it really full, and see students wanting to ask questions and show up for important conversations like this,” Craig said.
The Department’s panel discussion closed with free food provided from Caribbean Soul and open conversation where panel members and students could further converse over any questions or ideas that came to mind during the talk.