Cole Crouch ‘17 – On Wednesday, the class made three exciting and unique visits in D.C. The first was to the Pew Research Center, the second to ICANN and the third to NPR. Throughout the day, the class engaged in meaningful discussion with professionals that helped develop a deeper understanding about the vast and vital voices shaping America. In reflection, one cannot truly comprehend the rhetorical agents present in America without visiting D.C. and seeing firsthand the immense inter-connectivity between government, organizations, and businesses.
At the Pew Research Center, the class was presented research and polls about how to understand and communicate demographic studies concerning religion in America. Dr. Gregory Smith, Director of U.S. Religion Surveys, Religion and Public Life Project, led the discussion about the prominent role religion and religious studies serve in shaping American politics. From 30,000 feet, Dr. Smith discussed that religion is extremely powerful, prominent, and necessary to analyze and monitor in America. In his findings, he concluded that religion, behind race, is the 2nd leading factor in projecting voting patterns in America. Furthermore, it was fascinating and bit humorous for the class to learn from Dr. Smith’s studies that 1 in 5 Americans have no religious affiliation; hence, the research study was entitled the “Nones” on the Rise. These studies prompted perhaps the most class discussion and questioning as they sought to think critically about how and why religion is such a principal voice and rhetorical agent in America.
From the Pew Research Center, the class continued their conversations on over to ICANN – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – where Patrick Jones ‘96, Senior Director, and Global Stakeholder Engagement led discussion. Jones informed the class about the unique role the Internet and ICANN has in connecting not just Americans domestically, but people globally. ICANN primarily functions to manage Internet resources for the public benefit by coordinating the Internet’s unique domain name system, but it also has grown an international mission. Since it’s founding, ICANN has been working to connect multi stakeholders via unique Internet strategies that cut through barriers in language, culture and government. Ultimately, the cornerstone mission is to create a globalized Internet community. As an appropriate bonus, the class was able to celebrate along with ICANN the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web! Just as well, Jones showed us a rare, neighboring skyline view of the White House.
