Mara Gualtieri

ENC 2135

The Center for Leadership and Social Change

Any interaction between two people requires a level of communication. When trying to get a
message across, some will say it, some will write it, and sometimes even a specific look can
suffice.
Communities are no different than simple interactions between just two people.
Depending on the type of community at hand, there are more and less powerful ways to spread a
message and create conversation. It is important to consider which types of genre best suit
certain communities. Paying attention to genre will make you a better writer and artist . . .
youll be focused on the needs of your audiences and your own purposes as a composer.
(Bedford Book of Genres, p.5) When one is able to discern what are the most successful ways to
communicate within a specific community, all conversation between members is fluid and there
is less chance for miscommunication to occur.
The best example of a community using multiple types of genres to communicate
amongst themselves and share ideas is The Center for Leadership and Social Change [BB3] here at
Florida State University, specifically the community formed within their program called Service
Leadership Seminar. This week-long experience for incoming freshmen looking to learn about
social justice and positive sustainable change included many workshops, community service
projects, hearing different keynote speakers, and attending a few panels. There were so many
different ways to interact with one another during the program, and also many ways in which the
communication within the members continues now.

Before even arriving to the program, all of the accepted participants were added to a
private Facebook group where they introduced themselves briefly and shared their interests and
intentions. Many members wrote paragraph long posts stating their hometowns, their intended
majors, which dorm they would be residing at, and their general interests. This private Facebook
group allowed them to interact on the surface level before even seeing each other face to face.
Being part of the Facebook group before even] arriving also added lots of anticipation and
excitement to the program. This was a particularly interesting communication strategy because it
began creating a sense of community and inclusion even before the participants had interacted
personally.
The use of Facebook worked within this community because it carried out one of the main
purposes of the Service Leadership Seminar well, which is to create an inclusive and tight-knit
community of like-minded individuals. Since the Facebook group was private and for members
only, everyone knew whatever was said in the group was for those peoples eyes only. Also, since
all the participants were all on the same boat, excited and passionate first year students, it was
easy to share their interests with people they understood to be like-minded and going through the
similar stage in life.] In this way, Facebook primarily utilized the rhetorical appeal of pathos by
focusing on the emotions of new college students to bring them together and incentivize them to
communicate . The like and comment features also played an important role in sparking up
different conversations from several peoples posts. This ability to not only see what people are
saying but being able to interact with the post opened up a stream of dialogue among the
community, uniting the members even further.
Once they arrived to the program, a giant poster hung on the wall with each of the participants
names on them. These posters were to be signed by other participants throughout the week, and

they could write anything they felt about a specific individual, whether it was a funny moment
the two had shared throughout the week, or a deep conversation that had bloomed due to an
inspiring workshop. The use of posters also provided that similar degree of openness given that
every participant had one and that they were free to writer on anyones in any way they wanted
without restriction. It is because of this highly inclusive environment in a physical space with a
tangible medium that allowed participants to feel equally as comfortable sharing with each other
on a virtual space such as Facebook in the future. This genre of writing on each others posters
was something they would appreciate at the end of the week when the entire program had come
to a close, since it stood as a permanent reminder of all the new people they had met and all the
insightful and inspiring conversations that had been had. Similar to Facebook, the posters also
mainly used pathos as its rhetorical appeal, as they connected with peoples feelings more than
anything else.
The poster was unique in that it was a concrete and tangible form to remind members of the
week that quickly passed them by. Even though all participants had their one designated poster, it
felt like a collective effort throughout the week to encourage each other and point out each
others strengths. It is because of this mindset and attitude that the members were able to create
such a sincere and profound sense of community in just one week, and why all members
continue to be eager to work with The Center for other sorts of projects and workshops.
Much of the other genres used by the community throughout the week were verbal. For
example, many of the workshops they went to led by different professors and specialists were
discussion based, where members would hear a professor or faculty member speak on a certain
issue that interested them such as identity, diversity, social justice, or effective leadership. Given
the professional and qualified people hosting and leading the workshops, these types of verbal

communications used ethos as a primary rhetorical appeal. The Service Leadership Seminar
participants confided in the wise words coming from people whose academic fields related to
social justice.
However, after having a stimulating introduction to the topic, there would be a variety of
questions relating to the issue that they were encouraged to discuss with each other and the
speaker. In this way, they were having meaningful conversations that stayed on track and in
focus, while still feeling like everyone had a voice and a moment to speak.
The ability to form and cultivate a dialogue is important in a community such as The Centers
because social issues dealing with identity need lots of input, opinions and experiences from
diverse groups of people. Of course, keynote speakers and professors are crucial to gaining
knowledge that can expand how certain problems in society are viewed and which solutions can
be focused on, but being that the participants of this program were zoning in on becoming future
leaders and that they were the ones performing service, it was important to have everyones input
on the topics being discussed at hand. Given that the members were from such diverse
backgrounds, the opinions and experiences shared gave issues such as racism, sexism,
homophobia, transphobia, poverty, immigration, and homelessness a more multifaceted
perspective. Again, this form of communication effectively served the purpose of inclusion and
openness that The Center promotes.
One word check-ins, as referred to by program coordinators and facilitators were another
interesting type of verbal communication that was used during the Service Leadership Seminar.
Considering that the days of the program were very long, about eleven hours each day for a
week, it could sometimes become exhausting and even draining to talk about such serious issues
and not feel overwhelmed or paralysed. Because of this, the participants did a series of one word

check-ins throughout the day, which consisted of everyone in the group giving one word as to
how they were feeling at the given moment. The one word check-in served many purposes. For
one, the coordinators and facilitators used it to gauge how good, bad, or tired the group was
feeling at the moment, and could schedule in bathroom breaks and rest-times appropriately. They
also aided in knowing which topics and specific social issues fueled more passion and interest in
the group than others. Finally, on an individual level, the one word check-in felt like a way to
communicate and openly express to the group the specific emotion and mindset of a participant
at a given time. While some communities would possibly (and understandably) find the one word
check-in activity somewhat corny and maybe not too useful, it worked within the Service
Leadership Seminar because of that safe space atmosphere that had been created from the very
start, and as such, members felt comfortable enough to honestly express their feelings.
Even though the Service Leadership Seminar program ended in the span of just one
week, the community did not fall apart. Instead, it has grown to be an even tighter nucleus of
The Centers entire community. One of the ways they accomplished this was by creating a
Group.Me for the participants, which is essentially a giant group text message. Using the
Group.Me account, all the members of the program can continue to communicate with each
other, even on the-go. Individuals use the Group.Me to share information about different
upcoming events that have to do with social justice, they make sure everyone is doing okay, and
make plans to catch up.
The Center also has Global Mixers every so often, which are events where all members
of the community (and aspiring members of the community as well) can meet up in person, have
free coffee and food, as well as make connections with other members of the community that
have similar interests and goals. These mixers are powerful in strengthening the community

because it shows members that there are always new people to meet who have equally wonderful
initiatives as them and share their passion for many social justice issues.
Finally, one of the best ways that this community keeps up with all its members is
through The Centers weekly email newsletter. Email tends to be considered relatively outdated
in many communities nowadays since there are so many more modern platforms out there to
choose from, but what makes this newsletter so effective is that it doesnt bombard the
participants daily. It is a weekly reminder that gets sent [BB19] to their school emails (which have
to checked regularly anyway,) of all the upcoming events that The Center has planned. Through
these newsletters, all of the members of The Centers community stay up to date with what The
Center is doing. This can include activities such as sign-up dates for the Community Outreach
Program (a community service program) and different leadership workshops such as the
Freshman Leadership Institute.
In all, The Center for Leadership and Social Change is a wonderful community that uses
many different genres to pass information to and interact with its members. As Anderson states,
Knowing about the conventions and variations among genres will enable you to make decisions
about best to read and communicate in different rhetorical situations. (Write Now, p.19 Ranging
from programs, to digital forms of communication like Facebook and Group.Me, written forms
of appreciation or real-life events, the sense of togetherness and connectedness even on such a
large campus is able to thrive. Even though certain different intensive programs by The Center
end after a brief moment, the community of young leaders and students passionate about creating
positive sustainable change lives on and will continue to grow.