Recap of Eighth Annual National Writing Day

The National Writing Day returned with a bang! This annual event, in its eighth year, was held on Friday, October 25 at the Long Nguyen & Kimmy Duong Forum (CE Forum) on the Annandale Campus! Beginning with a beautiful exhibition of student work on the power of writing, students had the opportunity to present their work to Annandale Provost Diane Mucci, and to Hemchand Gossai, dean of LASS Annandale. This was followed by an address from Dr. Diane Mucci, whose encouraging words on the importance of education and writing inspired our students.

The keynote speaker was Giovanni Rocco, press secretary and spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Interior. He coordinates and implements communications strategies on a variety of priorities for the Biden-Harris administration, including tackling the climate crisis, developing a clean energy economy, conserving America’s lands and waters, investing in the nation’s infrastructure and advancing environmental justice.

Giovanni spoke about his own experience immigrating from Chile to the United States at the age of 9, his first day of school in the U.S. and the grueling process of learning English. He reminded students that nothing is impossible with hard work and dedication.

He urged students to follow three rules:

1) Listen to yourself,
2) Uplift marginalized voices and
3) Write and lead with purpose.

Following the keynote speech, there was an engaging and informative Q & A session. The Q & A session set the stage for a rich exploration of education, writing and social justice themes that centered around future career and academic goals of students.

Following the Q&A, Dr. Hemchand Gossai spoke about the importance of writing and led a panel of NOVA’s very own Nighthawks who participated in a peer-to-peer dialogue on the power of writing. Student panelists talked about the importance of writing in their lives and the personal writing strategies that have worked for them.

The National Writing Day Committee looks forward to bringing together students, faculty and staff again next year to celebrate writing across the curriculum and the power of communication!

Submitted by:
Dr. Rima Gulshan, AN-English, RGulshan@nvcc.edu