By Jesslyn Parrish
STC-Florida has several student members working hard to gain all of the skills they can in order to get started in their technical communication careers, and I am one of them! I began attending STC meetings about halfway through my doctoral program and what I’ve learned in the past 6 months has been invaluable. Since I began my graduate studies (and decided to pivot into the tech world) I have been asking anyone I met what I should do to be a good candidate for the job market and STC-Florida answered that question in detail. Now that I’m getting closer to completing my graduate studies, here is a bit of information about me:
My first publication
One of my biggest accomplishments in 2021 was being published in Huffington Post Personal. Earlier in the year I sent a pitch to their editor to tell the story of my adoption, and by some miracle he accepted the post. Is it a typical story? Not at all. Was it important to tell this story? Yes. My adoption was one of the most defining moments of my life, and seeing it published was surreal.
My Dissertation Plans
The main focus throughout my doctoral program has been figuring out my dissertation research. After going through a few ideas, I decided to create an interactive web game to teach users about hearing loss and its impact on daily life. I have had progressive hearing loss since I was a child, and decided to use that twenty years of experience in a productive way. This dissertation will provide an opportunity to develop a game using Twine, the game’s documentation, and a survey study to determine the game’s initial effectiveness as an educational tool.
Involvement in STC-Florida
My first bit of involvement with STC-Florida was in January 2021 as a presenter about inclusivity in technical writing. I am incredibly excited to serve as secretary for STC-Florida in 2021-2022. After meeting other STC-Florida members in 2020 and realizing these were the people I wanted to learn from, work with, and assist if I could.
You can contact me at jesslynparrish@gmail.com or on LinkedIn!