Student Spotlight:
Raghda Al Hmeyrat
M.A. Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Raghda Al Hmeyrat is a graduate student in the MA in English with Emphasis in Rhetoric and Technical Communication Program. She graduates in June 2020.

Do you have any exciting projects that you are currently working on or past projects that you want to highlight for our readers?

I really enjoyed creating instruction guides for the Eastern Writers’ Center for Eastern students.  In that project, I created instructions on how students could interact and use the Writer’s Center website to access and use the Writers’ Center’s services.  

Another project that I enjoyed creating that was very personal to me was a video informing people of the 2019 Iraqi Revolution.  I used my skills in audio and video production to relay an important message to my community with that project.

How have your 51������ experiences shaped you?

Teaching for the English program has built my confidence in who I am and has allowed me to push myself much harder than I had during my undergraduate education. It helped me become a stronger person.  When your profession helps you become a better person, that’s when you know you are in the right place with the right people.

The English program has given me skills in teaching, communication, instructional writing, editing and public speaking.  It has made me realize what I want to pursue for my career, and what skills I want to keep working on after I graduate, especially in the area of instructional writing.

What important lessons or tips do you have for future students?

Stay on top of everything in your classes and do not get behind, because it is so easy to get behind in your work.  Don’t be afraid to reach out to your professors and your classmates if you need help.  Enjoy your process of learning and don’t rush it.  Really enjoy the process.

Are there any other concluding thoughts you have before we wrap up this interview?

I want to thank all the professors from the English Composition and RTC program for giving me the opportunity to grow as a person. Now that I am almost done with the program, I feel more confident in the future and in pursuing a career of my interests, like working on instructional videos or teaching English as a Second Language.

51������ Rhetoric & Technical Communication alumna Raquel DeLeon (formerly Dean) recently published her article “User Experiences of Spanish-Speaking Latinos with the Frontier Behavioral Health Website,” in Xchanges: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Technical Communication, Rhetoric, and Writing Across the Curriculum. DeLeon shows in her article that technical communication and advocacy are not mutually exclusive endeavors.

DeLeon’s article presents a usability study of a regional behavioral health website that focuses on the experiences of Latino/a people while using the website. Many of her participants in this study found that the design made performing tasks difficult. According to DeLeon, her project was inspired by witnessing her mother’s struggle to get mental health help. Both of her biological parents were immigrants to the United States and did not make it past the first grade in Mexico. DeLeon explains that seeking mental health treatment was a struggle for her mother because:

“One, she didn’t have the financial means to find high-quality mental health services. Two, she had no idea how to even begin searching for resources and was unable to comprehend the complex wording on specific websites that offered mental health services.”

DeLeon observed that people in the Latino/a community who were non-English-speaking struggled because they were not educated about mental health issues and struggled to find resources for their children with mental health concerns. Non-English-speaking Latino/a people struggled with the websites of many mental health organizations and DeLeon wanted to bring awareness to the issue.

DeLeon has taken and will continue to take the education she has received at 51������ and has used it to affect important change in the world. DeLeon demonstrates that technical communication and psychology both can affect change as disciplines on their own and are even more powerful in concert with each other.