Mena Hannakachl, OU major in Professional and Digital Writing, is a recipient of the 2023 Oakland University Keeper of the Dream scholarship award, an award that recognizes students who have demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities through their involvement on campus by breaking down racial and cultural stereotypes and promoting racial understanding.
Mena immigrated to the United States from the Middle East to pursue the American Dream of opportunity. Her first year-writing class, WRT 1020 Basic Writing, helped her find her authentic voice that is informed by her immigrant background and multilingualism. At the end of her first year, Mena switched her major to Professional and Digital Writing and became an Embedded Writing Specialist (EWS) in first-year writing classes to help other students with similar backgrounds find their own voices. Mena’s work as a student and an EWS was ignited from her rich, yet conflicting relationship and experiences with language. She soon came to know that her mission was to advocate for students’ right to their own language. In her work as a student and an EWS, she urges her colleagues and professors to consider how racial and linguistic identities intersect with writing. Mena questioned how an undue focus on correctness in writing might undervalue student identities and language practices.
Through her WRT classes, professors, and on-campus job as an EWS in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, Mena has worked to improve and encourage racial and linguistic diversity on campus by using her intersecting identities as an immigrant, Arab, Chaldean, American, and multilingual.
Many congratulations to Mena on this prestigious award! For more information about the Keeper of the Dream scholarship award, please visit the Center for Multicultural Initiatives.