{"id":1314,"date":"2019-06-18T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T00:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2020-04-21T23:52:41","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T23:52:41","slug":"wright20190618","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/2019\/06\/18\/wright20190618\/","title":{"rendered":"Casey Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Casey Wright (2019)<\/p><\/div>\n

Casey Wright is a middle school math teacher in Kansas City, MO. She is a Teach for America<\/a> alum, and is currently finishing her 3rd year teaching. She is a volleyball and soccer coach at the Kauffman School<\/a> in Kansas City. In her free time, Casey enjoys hiking, playing with her dog Quinn, and travelling with her friends and family, and cheering on Sporting KC.<\/p>\n

What year did you graduate and what was your concentration?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I graduated in 2016 with a concentration in Public Communication<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What extra-\/co-curricular activities did you do?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I was a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma<\/a> national sorority, the University Conduct Board<\/a>, and I wrote for The Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Casey (far right) and some of her Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority sisters (2015).<\/p><\/div>\n

Did you go to grad school? If so, where? Was it immediately after you left Truman or did you wait? Why?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, I was able to get my grad school paid for through AmeriCorps<\/a> at UMSL. I got my Masters in Special Education, and completed my degree while teaching full time in the Teach for America<\/a> program.<\/p>\n

What was your first job after graduation?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I left Truman and went and taught with Teach for America<\/a> for two years in Kansas City, MO.<\/p>\n

What work do you do\/What are you doing now?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am a teacher at the Ewing Marion Kauffman School<\/a> in Kansas City.\u00a0 I just finished my third year teaching 6-8th grade math.<\/p>\n

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Casey at work at the Kauffman School as a teacher (left) and as a volleyball coach (right) (2018).<\/p><\/div>\n

How has your Liberal Arts\/COMM education helped you?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

My COMM degree has helped me become a more conscious consumer of information. I have been able to take that learning with me into the working world, and I am able to filter information by identifying underlying themes, biases, etc. This is extremely important in my job as I am constantly advocating for social justice in the education system of Kansas City.<\/p>\n

Which class did you dislike at the time you took it, but now you\u2019re grateful you took it?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Organizational Communication<\/a> with Dr. Kleine<\/a> was a difficult class, but it taught me the different ways that organizations are structured and how power is distributed to reinforce those structures. This has helped me better understand, on a larger scale, how our society\u2019s structures allow certain people to keep power and while denying it to others.<\/p>\n

What was your greatest accomplishment at Truman?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Casey (left) with a couple of her teacher friends (2018).<\/p><\/div>\n

My greatest accomplishment at Truman was being a part of the University Conduct Board<\/a>, and creating a Mental Health Awareness campaign that developed my passion as a mental health advocate.<\/p>\n

Why is Truman a good place for a student to study?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truman is a good place to study because it is one of a kind. Parents always love the \u201cinexpensive\u201d aspect to Truman, but as a student it is a great place to come into your own and figure out who you want to be. Throughout my four years at Truman, I honestly believe I was able to \u201ctry out\u201d different versions of myself by participating in anything and everything until I found my place, both academically and personally. I\u2019m thankful for such a diverse and accessible campus and student life that allowed that to happen.<\/p>\n

What would you say a COMM student should absolutely<\/u> do while at Truman?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you can, take the special topics class<\/a> on the Iowa Caucuses with Dr. Self<\/a>.\u00a0 This was my most memorable experience academically.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give someone who wants to go into the same line of work as you?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Start thinking about how you can get involved now. You don\u2019t have to wait to be a senior or to have a degree to do something about the things you care about. For example I became a member of Missouri CASA<\/a> and was a guardian ad litem<\/em><\/a> at 21. Don\u2019t limit yourself because of your age.<\/p>\n

What do you miss most about campus\/Kirksville?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Casey, her boyfriend, and a furry friend in KC (2018).<\/p><\/div>\n

La Pachanga<\/a>, the chicken tenders at the SUB, and being in walking distance from all of the people I love most in the world.<\/p>\n

What tag line would you create for the COMM department at Truman?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

“COMM is like a giant taco. You get a little bit of everything, and it\u2019s all good.”<\/p>\n

If you could come back to Truman and teach a class for a semester, what would be its title and what would it be about?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

How To Disagree with People Without Insulting Them 101<\/p>\n

What did we not ask that you think is important for people to know?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The best advice I have for incoming COMM students is to be open-minded. You can do SO MANY things with a COMM degree, so don\u2019t put yourself into a box.\u00a0 (Editor’s note<\/em>: You can even teach math!)<\/p>\n

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Casey and her dad celebrating graduation (2016).<\/p><\/div>\n

If you would like to learn more of Casey’s story, or if <\/span><\/strong>you want to learn more about the Department of Communication, contact us!<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casey Wright is a middle school math teacher in Kansas City, MO. She is a Teach for America alum, and is currently finishing her 3rd year teaching. She is a volleyball and soccer coach at the Kauffman School in Kansas City. In her free time, Casey enjoys hiking, playing with her dog Quinn, and travelling … Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50608],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-watdn"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1328,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.truman.edu\/commspotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}