From left to right: Elle Feneide, Robin Shulman and Elliot Babilonia.
@JUSTPEACEMU / INSTAGRAM
Otito Maduegbuna, Contributor
On April 8, The Quadrangle had the opportunity to speak with student members of Manhattan University’s Just Peace Club, who hosted an op-ed writing workshop in Kelly Commons sponsored by the Dorothy Day Center. The club was joined by Robin Shulman, professional journalist, former Washington Post reporter and author of the 2013 novel, “Eat the City”. The Just Peace Club and Shulman provided instruction on how to write a newspaper opinion piece, and several members took time to discuss the importance of workshops like this, as well as journalism as a whole.
Kevin Ahern, Ph.D., professor of religious studies and advisor for the club, spoke to The Quadrangle about the reasoning behind holding the workshop and the use of journalism within the MU campus.
“A lot of the students were expressing a desire to figure out ways to have their voices heard more clearly and more effectively in the media,” Ahern said. “And they were wondering how to write op-eds and other sorts of articles that deliver a point and deliver it clearly. This workshop is designed to help students to better communicate ideas around social issues to wider audiences.”
Within the workshop, students were given guidelines and general guidance by Shulman on how to write their own op-ed, and the significance of these types of writing pieces within the realm of journalism.
The Just Peace Club is a newer organization on MU’s campus, founded by students Elle Feneide and Elliot Bablionia in response to the latest presidential election in the United States.
In addition to her role in helping create the club, Feneide is also the president of the organization and is a junior double majoring in political science and English. She went on to speak about her motive behind holding an op-ed workshop on campus.
“One of the things I’ve been really trying to work on has been making it so that people at this school can figure out how to find their voice,” Feneide said. “I think that op-ed writing is a good way to still find your voice without having to go out and do the extra things like protesting and dealing with that. I’m just really trying to find ways to help people manage the overwhelming feelings that they may be facing right now within the news, because there’s so much information coming in.”
Elliot Babilonia, the secretary of the Just Peace Club and a sophomore computer science major, added onto the benefit of the op-ed workshop for MU students, as well as the overall mission of the club.
“This workshop is meant to really channel students’ emotions on what is going on right now in terms of current events in the world,” Babilonia said. “There’s so many things going on, but not enough outlets to channel it, especially on campus. At Just Peace, we really want to be a way for students to be able to be in touch and politically aware of what is going on, such as issues that affect marginalized communities. And we also want to discuss how you can really use your voice to elevate others and the issues you care about, which was really the goal of the op-ed writing workshop we had here.”
The Just Peace Club has plans to do future workshops starting next semester. Both Babilonia and Feneide expressed their passion for the work that their club has done so far, and for this event in particular.
“We all have opinions,” Feneide said. “And I think the value in an op-ed is actually saying it to someone who’s going to hear you. It allows people who don’t work in journalism, who don’t have the time to write a book, to write something that matters to them.”