By Anna Hope Emerson ’16, Staff Writer

Claire Diaz-Ortiz, who currently leads social innovation at Twitter, was Newark Academy’s first global speaker of the year.  Ms. Diaz-Ortiz has an incredible past. Besides having lived on four continents and traveled to over 50 countries, she is a founder of several non-profit organizations. As the leader of social innovation at Twitter, she works on programs such as Twitter for Nonprofits and Twitter Ads for Good. She is also the author of the book Twitter for Good: Change the World, One Tweet at a Time.

In her speech, Ms. Diaz-Ortiz focused on how much more access the world today has to communication than it did in the past, and how communication through social media, specifically Twitter, can be used for a common good. She opened with a heartfelt and engaging story about her experience living in an orphanage in Kenya, when a young boy stole her cell phone because he wanted to call “anyone.” After the story, she broadened her focus and discussed the ways in which social networking has become a platform for recent social change.

Summing up the sentiments of many on campus, Clara Mooney ’13 said, “I thought that she was a very prepared, polished speaker and approached it with a lot of confidence, but that the presentation itself was kind of redundant. The kinds of stories she shared, while interesting and exciting, were all stories that I had heard before in some form or another…I would have liked to hear about what her job entails because that would be very interesting and new to me…she had a lot to offer and chose to focus on the wrong things.”

Ms. Diaz-Ortiz stressed numerous times the constant access we have to communication. Many members of the community discussed the differences that social media created between the last generation and today. Ms. Moore, of the Foreign Languages Department, said that this “part of her speech made me realize and consider how different my life would have been in college if I had access to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Things have evolved so much in such a short period of time”.  Jokingly, Ms. Diaz-Ortiz described the world without social media as “a sad, sad, world”.

Students and faculty members alike felt that she did not get into the specifics of her job, and the ways in which Twitter can actually be used to help people. Ms. Acquadro, of the English department, said, “I think she could have gone into more detail about the crises in Japan and Haiti, and how Twitter saved lives.”

Some members of the community were also frustrated when she called mostly on Middle School students during the question and answer session that followed her speech. Though her message that social media can be used for good was clear, it left several audience members hanging. They felt that she missed the other side of the story. Mr. Parlin, of the Humanities Department, was one member of the Newark Academy community who didn’t get his question answered. When asked afterwards, he said, “My question was: does she see any circumstances in which all of this technology could be used for evil? To what extent could social media be used for evil or dishonest purposes?”  This question seems particularly relevant in light of the violent response to the “Innocence of Muslims” video.

In all, the community appreciated the opportunity to hear from such an interesting and experienced speaker, although many felt her presentation could have been more specific.