Meet Renee Mercer. Ms. Mercer is an English instructor at Bethune-Cookman University. She’s only been on campus for a few years now, but during that short time, she has accomplished remarkable things for our students and the Institution as a whole. There is a perception, which thankfully is changing, that English degrees are solely for writers, readers, and poetic types. Ms. Mercer is shattering that perception.
Bethune-Cookman University is one of the black colleges supported by the Black College Fund which provides financial support to maintain solid, challenging academic programs; strong faculties; and well-equipped facilities.
“For me, what started by majoring in English with a specialization in creative writing led to a career where I can incorporate my varied interests like television, coding, creativity and research into my work. I love what I do because it gives me freedom to explore and share the things that I love,” said Renee Mercer.
One of these things is not like the other: Coding. Television. Creativity. Research. Data. Literature. For Ms. Mercer, all of these things that she’s passionate about have come from her study of language and composition.
These tools have led Ms. Mercer to design a special topics course at B-CU that ties in video games and connects them to literature, this course, called Gamification, will be offered at B-CU in the fall. She has created an online data collection tool for the former College of Liberal Arts that allowed the College to generate a variety of COVID-19 impact reports. Additionally, through her participation in a professional development program, the College of Arts and Humanities became the recipient of an Apple coding grant which provides our students and faculty with access to coding lessons, software, and computer equipment. She’s streamlined data collection forms for the University’s largest academic department, and she’s only getting started.
Ms. Mercer is living, breathing, walking proof that an English degree or a degree in other liberal arts disciplines helps recipients to develop transferable skills. Sure, you can become an amazing, well respected instructor of English, but you can also become more. You can utilize those problem solving skills to solve complex coding problems, or think outside of the box to create data collection mechanisms. You can capture the power of the ever-growing video gaming industry and help young minds find their connection to literature. Like Ms. Mercer, there’s not a lot that you can’t do. It simply takes heart, drive, creativity, and a love for words.
Mercer shares, “Sharing knowledge with others and recontextualizing how others see the world through language opens their eyes to the possibilities and adventures that lie beneath the surface of the text that we see, hear, and read everyday. Because this pathway hones creative and critical thinking skills by encouraging and even demanding that its travelers constantly question and challenge the boundaries and guideposts left by those who passed through before us, we discover that the study of language has few limits and so do many freedoms.”
We’re so grateful for Ms. Mercer’s many contributions to our students, faculty, staff, and our University as a whole. And if you find yourself reading some Shakespeare, Thoreau, Poe, Hughes, or Angelou, dig a little bit deeper. As Ms. Mercer says above, “the study of language has few limits and so do many freedoms.”
Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona Beach, FL
One of seven apportioned giving opportunities of The United Methodist Church, the Black College Fund provides financial support to maintain solid, challenging academic programs; strong faculties; and well-equipped facilities at 11 United Methodist-related historically black colleges and universities. Please encourage your leaders and congregations to support the Black College Fund apportionment at 100 percent.
