Any interaction between people requires some sort of level of communication.

When one
person is trying to get a message across to someone else, they may simply say it, they might mail
them a letter, or they could even give them a specific look. Depending on the type of relationship
these two people share, that look with their eyes may be more effective than any other type of
communication.
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, just as the best way to express oneself to another human being
depends on the level of understanding and closeness the two hold. It is important to consider
which types of genre best suit certain communities because as the Bedford Book of Genres
states, 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. 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.
Keeping all of this in mind, one can truly begin to think about the ways in which the
communities theyre currently a part of share information and interact. Personally belonging to
several communities such as the feminist community, the Latino community, and various friend
groups that come together for similar interests, the best example of a community using multiple
types of genre to communicate amongst themselves and share ideas that I am a part of is the
community around The Center for Leadership and Social Change here at Florida State
University. While I am very new to the much larger community that is Florida State alone, I had
the privilege and honor to move up a week before fall semester began to participate in a program
The Center hosts called the Service Leadership Seminar. In this program, I joined in on many

workshops, performed community services, heard different keynote speakers, and watched a few
panels. There were so many different ways we were interacting with each other in the present
moment, and also many ways in which we continue to communicate now.
Before even arriving to the program, all of the accepted participants were added to a
private Facebook group where we introduced ourselves briefly and shared our 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 us 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 having interacted personally
with any of the participants.
Once we arrived to the program, we each had a giant poster hanging on the wall with our
names on each of them. Although it confused me a bit at first, I learned that these posters were to
be signed by other participants throughout the week, and they could write anything they felt
about you, whether it was a funny moment you two had shared throughout the week, or a deep
conversation that had bloomed due to an inspiring workshop. This genre of writing on each
others posters was something I 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 I had met and
all the insightful and inspiring conversations we had. In fact, I still have my poster with all the
sweet, little messages people left me hanging up in my dorm. The poster felt like a concrete and
tangible form to remind members of the week that quickly fleeted.

Although Facebook groups and big posters are two really different genres and ways of
communicating, I believe that they both work well with the Service Leadership Seminar
audience because of the type of people in this community. One of the main goals and aspirations
of the community is create inclusive and safe environments, which both a Facebook group and
posters can create. Since the Facebook group was private and for members only, we all knew
whatever we said in the group was for those peoples eyes only, and since we were all on the
same boat, excited and passionate first year students, it was easy to share our interests with
people we knew were like minded and going through the same stage in life. The like and
comment features also played an important role in sparking up different conversations from
several peoples posts, for example, Youre driven by empowering LGBTQ+ people too? Lets
get together and discuss this sometime! 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 our community,
uniting us even further.
As for the posters, they also provided that similar degree of openness given that every
participant had one and that we were free to writer on anyones in any way we wanted to without
restriction. Even though we all had our one designated poster, it felt like a collective effort
throughout the week to encourage each other and point out each others strength. It is because of
these mindset and attitude that I believe we were able to create such a sincere and profound sense
of community in just one short week, and why all members are eager to continue working with
The Center for other sorts of projects and workshops.
Much of the other genres we used throughout the week were verbal. For example, many
of the workshops we went to led by different professors and specialists were discussion based,
where we would hear a professor or faculty member speak on a certain issue that interested us,

such as identity, diversity, social justice, or effective leadership, and after having a stimulating
introduction to the topic, there would be a variety of questions relating to the issue that we were
encouraged to discuss with each other and the speaker. In this way, we 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 to the topics being discussed at hand, especially because the members
were from such diverse backgrounds so 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 gave off that air of
inclusion and openness that The Center is really all about promoting.
Another little interesting and less serious genre of verbal communication that was used
during the Service Leadership Seminar were these things the program coordinators and
facilitators called One Word Check-Ins. 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, we 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. Although notably
sort of cheesy, 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,
and 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) fine 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. Because of
this safe environment, members felt comfortable enough to honestly express their feelings.
Even though the Service Leadership Seminar program ended in the span of just one short
week, the community did not fall apart. Instead, we have grown to be an even tighter knit
nucleus of The Centers entire community. One of the ways we did 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. We use the Group.Me to share information about different upcoming
events that have to do with social justice, we make sure everyone is doing okay, and we make
plans to meet up and catch up with each other.
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
some free coffee and food, and 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 us that there are always new people to meet who have equally wonderful
initiatives as us and share our passion for many social justice issues.

Finally, one of the best ways that this community keeps up with all the members is
through The Centers weekly email newsletter. Sure, 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 us
daily. It is a weekly reminder that gets sent to our school emails (which we have to check
regularly anyway) of all the great and wonderful events that The Center has planned for the
upcoming future. Through these newsletters, all of the members of The Centers community stay
up to date with all that The Center is doing, 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 to be a
part of that uses many different genres to pass information to and interact with its members.
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 shortly, the community of young leaders and students passionate about
creating positive sustainable change lives on and will continue to grow.