By Norma Sumarnap Kneese
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P01.V52.I4
Adviser Update
Quest for diversity must continue
DIVERSITY
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SUMMER 2013
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Norma Sumarnap
Kneese
taught English, speech,
reading and journalism
at Snake River HS in
Blackfoot, Idaho, for 26
years. She advised the
school’s newspaper and
yearbook and was active in
the Idaho Student Journalism
Association. She is CJE and
MJE certified by JEA and
taught at numerous diversity
workshops at the state and
national levels. She served as
multicultural chair for JEA.
“
We need to
change the way
people think.
We need to
change people’s
perspectives. That
is why we need
to keep pushing,
to keep focusing,
to keep pressing
diversity.
”
s the multicultural chair
for Journalism Education
Association, it has been
rewarding and disappointing at
the same time. The Multicultural
Commission began back in the
early 1990s when Walterene
Swanston was invited to do
diversity training with the JEA
board. Soon after the training,
President Ken Siver created the
Multicultural Commission with
Steve O’Donoghue as chair. It has
now been over 20 years since that
first step in placing diversity in the
forefront of publications, staffs and
advisers.
Over the years, JEA and
NSPA have seen a slow
increase of students of color at
the national conventions. The
unfortunate fact is that many students
of co ܈\