Get Woke Nova: Fostering Dialogue and Allyship on Villanova’s Campus
Photo from Get Woke Nova Instagram
By: Grace McGowan
In the spring of 2017, Dr. Billie Murray asked her upper level civic engagement class if anyone wanted to address racial injustice on Villanova’s campus as a part of their senior research project. Four students in Dr. Murray’s class took on the challenge, and Get Woke Nova was born. Serene AlHalabi, Brynn Bannister, Kat Gowland, and Sarah O’Connor began this campus social media campaign with the goals of starting conversations concerning diversity and inclusion, giving students a platform to share their stories, and promoting allyship at Villanova.
These issues are especially important to talk about on a predominantly White college campus such as Villanova. Get Woke Nova was created to be both a voice for underrepresented students and a call to the importance of allies. “No one knew who we were when we first started, but once we gained more attention, more and more students wanted to help and participate,” said Serene, one of the founders. “It made me feel like we were taking the right steps to create a more inclusive community by helping students have a voice…We want people to have more conversations even if they disagree. If we don’t engage in dialogue and talk about our different perspectives, then change won’t happen.”
One of the leading facets of Get Woke Nova’s social media campaign is featuring student stories on their Instagram page. Dr. Terry Nance in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion told the founders during a preliminary meeting that many students come to her with stories about discrimination on campus, and she wished there was a way for others to hear these personal accounts and see the ways in which discrimination still exists. By putting faces to issues of injustice concerning race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic status, the problems become more tangible and less abstract to those who may not experience discrimination in their lives.
The stories, written by both underrepresented students and allies (presented in a Humans of New York style) quickly gained support on social media, and Get Woke Nova attained prominence on Villanova’s campus. Chloe Benson, Get Woke Nova’s current Event Planning Director, first got involved by sharing her own story during her freshman year. She said, “It was very therapeutic to put everything on paper and get an extremely positive response to how I’ve been feeling in relation to my experiences at Villanova and in my lifetime. That was the most positive experience I could have had. I think there’s something to be said about being vulnerable and sharing your story with people and being able to relate with other people.”
Beyond creating a platform on social media for these personal stories to be shared, Get Woke Nova places Wish Trees around campus with prompts about the Villanova community or other questions concerning diversity and allyship, encouraging people to write and hang a response.
Get Woke Nova still continues to be a strong presence on campus even though the original members have graduated and moved into the professional world. Currently, Get Woke Nova is run by seven Villanova students who organize different aspects of the campaign, such as social media, outreach, and event planning. One important aspect of the current campaign is establishing opportunities to work with Villanova’s four colleges and other organizations on campus on their diversity and inclusion initiatives.
In April, Get Woke Nova partnered with the Campus Activity Team and the Panhellenic Council to organize a facilitated showing of The Hunting Ground, a documentary that addresses sexual assault on college campuses. Get Woke Nova also worked with Villanova’s School of Business to hold a Bartley “takeover” in March. Many students and professors wore Get Woke Nova’s t-shirts, students’ stories were projected on screens throughout the building, and a Wish Wall was displayed in the commons.
Throughout all of these initiatives, Get Woke Nova has maintained its original objectives of encouraging allyship and creating conversations about diversity on campus. To Get Woke Nova’s Outreach and Logistics Director Michelle Charles, the participation from students interested in learning more about allyship and how to support their peers on campus has been the most rewarding part of her experience. She said, “I’ve loved seeing the buy-in from students. I can see conversations that we’ve started, even in the classroom. I see how fast our stickers disappear when we have them out somewhere on campus. Students really do want to have these conversations, even if they are facilitated through a prompt on a board.”
To Get Woke Nova’s founders, the fact that the campaign is still active on campus is incredibly meaningful. “The fact that our project grew to be more than just a senior project and is still going even after we graduated makes me see the real impact we had and the importance of this dialogue on Villanova's campus,” said Sarah O’Connor, one of the four original members.
By being both a platform for underrepresented groups and a place where students can support their peers, Get Woke Nova clearly has an important role to play at Villanova. Moreover, issues concerning diversity and inclusion extend far beyond Villanova’s campus. By creating a space where students of different backgrounds can discuss these issues and their personal stories together, Get Woke Nova fosters the kind of dialogue that will create a more inclusive community on Villanova’s campus and beyond.
To learn more about Get Woke Nova or to share your story, visit their Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, or send them an email at getwokenova@gmail.com. Also, be sure to visit Bartley on October 2nd to see the next takeover in action.
