by Shanice Bland

I grew up in an extremely diverse town, coming from the suburbs of New Jersey. So, when I came to Syracuse I was surprised to see that it wasn’t as diverse as I expecting it to be. In fact, I found myself around more caucasian students, than any one other specific race. I would love to see more diversity especially in Newhouse because dealing with social media, it is important to have multiple races, views, and backgrounds so that there are different perspectives disseminated. It would be boring if every one had the same opinion and same beliefs and this would do nothing to expand diversity and intelligence.

by Luisa Ardila

As a first generation immigrant I am very conscious of the effects of diversity in a community. Diversity fosters dynamic dialogue, which is the foundation for democracy. At Newhouse I’ve been mindful of the ways in which awareness of diversity affect our work as media creators. That is why I am proud to be one of the leaders of a student organization that tries to promote that diversity.

CitrusTV has the only Spanish news show in Central New York and I’m lucky to be Executive Producer for our weekly newscasts. With my Co-EP, we realized that our operation was being limited by perception. People thought our staff was made up of only fluent Spanish speakers and that intimidated potential volunteers.

We then made it a point to diversify our staff to include students from all walks of life and all levels of Spanish proficiency. All we did was communicate more openly with potential students, showing them that our diversity made us stronger. The Noticias team went from being a group of 10 passionate volunteers to a wholesome team of 40+ students, all in less than one semester. I believe this has helped us be more conscious of producing content for a diverse audience and has advanced our ultimate goals for Noticias.

I hope that Noticias will continue to be an outstanding organization at Syracuse University, which leads the dialogue of diversity in the media. As the Hispanic minority expands in this country, I hope that Noticias will serve as an example of how universities can embrace that community and make a conscious effort to educate the public. With projects like Noticias, we can educate the public about the Hispanic minority. We also integrate Spanish speakers into the current event dialogue in this country.

Isn’t that what makes democracy great?

by Taylyn Washington-Harmon

To introduce myself, my name is Taylyn Washington-Harmon. I’m a freshman Magazine major and a proud Newhouse Ambassador. I’m originally from Chicago, IL and I’m happy to make Syracuse my new home.

For my first blog post, I wanted to talk about my experience with diversity within Newhouse. The amount of diversity in Newhouse is absolutely perfect and kept me interested in the school and Syracuse University as well. The diverse environment that Newhouse offers makes me feel truly comfortable and open. I enjoy meeting people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and cultures and hearing their viewpoints whether it’s in the classroom or in everyday conversation.

I particularly enjoy diversity as a theme within the Newhouse curriculum. The diversity requirement for class choices is extremely beneficial to all students and reinforces the points I made above, but applying them to my academic studies, and for this, I am extremely thankful.