Story by Bridgette Mcauliffe, Staff writer
Sonya Noruwa is researching and teaching students at Murray State as a visiting professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications. She teaches JMC 168, or Contemporary Mass Media.
Originally from Houston, Texas, Noruwa has accomplished much in her academic career. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston, majoring in communications and public relations and minored in marketing and political science. She received her master’s from the University of Houston Law Center and earned her juris doctorate from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
Noruwa said she was pulled to Murray State’s campus because of the diversity that she sees.
“I like that [Murray State] has a strong international pull,” Noruwa said. “And my parents being Nigerian, I felt like this could be a great way to show students that [they] can do these things, too.”
Noruwa said she likes to work with her students to encourage them to not only venture off into the world, but to give back to their campus community.
“I’ve been able to share life experiences with them and [show] them through my experiences, ‘Hey, this could be great!’” Noruwa said.
Noruwa started studying public relations as an undergraduate. By minoring in political science, she realized that she wanted to go to law school.
“I believe that public relations, communications and the law go hand in hand,” Noruwa said. “It fortified my legal career, but at the root of it all, I love communications.”
Noruwa said that is when she decided to venture back to communications. She said she wanted to reach those students [in college] because it is such a pivotal part of their lives.
Noruwa and her students talk about law in the classroom as well as communications to show them that communications is the “stepping stone of law.”
“My students are able to understand that there are ethical considerations when you are dealing with communications,” Noruwa said. “So, I always explain to them the things they might have to deal with in their career, whether it’s public relations or if you want to be a publicist, legal aspects will always run into it.”
Within the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Noruwa has also been helping with the Speech and Debate team. She stays involved by going to their tournaments, judging tournaments and even coaching the Murray State team when she has the time.
Prior to coming to Murray State, Noruwa had been doing a lot of research in the field of international law and communications. Noruwa said she has been researching health law and how countries communicate on different levels surrounding this issue. She said this has been her field of research for three years and that she plans on completing it by the summer.
“What I’ve been finding is that not a lot of people understand healthcare systems in different countries,” Noruwa said.
Noruwa realized while visiting her father in London, England that they have free healthcare. Noruwa said that England modeled their structure from countries like Cambodia and Australia.
“It started off as Googling,” Noruwa said.
With more research, Noruwa decided this was a topic she wanted to write about.
“If we can communicate the different ways that our systems work for us, then we know that we can implement them into our own [healthcare] systems,” Noruwa said. “Maybe that way, we can have a smoother transition into making sure that everyone is taken care of.
Noruwa and her students do not talk much about this research in class, but she shares a lot of her knowledge on other international topics, pulling from her experiences traveling abroad so much.
“Get out and see the world,” Noruwa said. “There are so many other things that are going on that if you are aware of it, it might spark the next thing for you to go get your master’s for, to get your P.h.D in, or you might want to write about it.”