Dr. Hessamoddin Sarooghi earned his Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UMKC in Spring 2016. He is now an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Butler University.
“I was a graduate student representative in the UMKC Graduate Writing Initiative Advisory Committee from its inception,” he said. “The committee was formed in response to a campus-wide survey of graduate students and faculty, in which they expressed an urgent need for an initiative to improve the writing capability of graduate students. My role in the committee meetings was to put myself in the shoes of my fellow graduate students and propose ideas and point of views that I felt were important for graduate students’ writing needs.”
In addition to serving on the Advisory Committee, Hessam attended several workshops focused on ethics and technology in writing.
“I was in the process of working on my dissertation when most of UMKC Graduate Writing Initiative programs were launched,” he said. “This was a great coincidence for me because I was able to attend the offered workshops and use the services of the Writing Studio to improve the quality of my writing.”
Hessam encourages graduate students to utilize the available writing resources, because every student can find a way to benefit from the numerous topics and mediums available.
“Both in academia and corporate life writing is a very critical skill,” he said. “If you are going to work in a university setting, writing is basically what determines your destiny. The quality of your writing is evident in the papers you want to publish, the grants you want to write, and the communication that you have with your students and colleagues. Consequently, how you write is a very important prerequisite for your success.”
Hessam noted that even outside of academia, writing is still a major part of who you are and how you are judged.
“I remember one of my managers once said that nothing makes her happier than reading a well-written report or letter crafted by her employees,” he said. “PLEASE, use the opportunities that are provided through the UMKC Graduate Writing Initiatives.”