Beginning in the Fall 2024 semester, the Communication Studies Department welcomed a new face to its faculty lineup: Assistant Professor John Drew. Drew specializes in Strategic Communication, having earned a BA in economics from Duke University, an MA in Media Studies from The New School, and an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design.
By incorporating a type of life coaching into his curriculum, meeting the students where they are and hearing their anxieties, Drew has found that he can connect those concerns with his teaching and provide real strategies to offer a way forward. He teaches his students the importance of developing a design-centered way of thinking that constructs various design systems as design opportunities.
“You just have to figure out what the parameters are and where the entry points are and where the opportunities are for your own benefit,” Drew said. This is a strategy Drew has had to use in his own life, altering his career path strategically based on changes in the marketplace, ultimately bringing him to Strategic Communication as a discipline.
Starting out as a print journalist in the early 2000s, Drew watched as legacy print establishments were going out of business and everything was moving online. He found his skill set lacking, leading him to determine he needed to adapt his skills to the changing times. This got him into a period of video journalism and filmmaking, as well as grant writing. Eventually he got on the track to grad school to develop more skills. Drew referred to this time as being transformative. It was in grad school where a mentor persuaded him to try teaching. Due to his strategic way of thinking and learning through the course of his life of how to pivot and carefully assess the marketplace and develop skills in response to it, Drew found himself in the world of academia teaching his students the same way of thinking.
Drew’s most recent research has been funded by the Mozilla Foundation through its Responsible Computing Challenge which, according to the Mozilla Foundation’s website, “supports the conceptualization, development, and piloting of curricula that empowers students to think about the social and political context of computing.” To this end, Drew has already developed two new courses with collaborators at Adelphi University where Drew previously served as Associate Professor. These courses are to help Mozilla make computer science accessible and compelling to a more diverse student body, making them think about responsible tech, and ideally become responsible technologists themselves.
At New Paltz this year Drew has taught Social Media and PR, Design and PR, Intro to Strategic Comm., and a grad class Organizational Writing and Design Across Media. Next year he will be teaching Design and PR, the Seminar in Strategic Comm., as well as another grad course, Environmental Communication, Organizations, and Sustainability.
Drew has enjoyed his time here at New Paltz so far. Already living in the Hudson Valley, he enjoys the area and is much happier to be closer to home. Additionally, Drew has found it refreshing being a part of the public university system. Having a diverse student body in many ways, the students at SUNY New Paltz have given him a fresh perspective with their eagerness to learn and desire to enrich their education to apply later in the future.
“Teaching here has been a joy. I feel like the majority of my students thus far are engaged and responsive and I am learning a lot from them. I’m very grateful to be here, despite having to earn tenure all over again!”