Donovan Roy, Wayne State alumni and current director of support services at the Keck School of Medicine, bleeds black and gold and is a Wildcat through and through. He is also an advocate for diversity and a believer in equality—which are two things he would never have truly understood without Wayne State College.
Although the weather prohibited Roy from sharing his ideas about diversity and equality with the students of Wayne State College, he was still able to visit with numerous others in the Kanter Student Center during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Monday afternoon.
“I wanted to speak about the voice of diversity,” said Roy. “It is such an important thing to cultivate on a college campus.”
Roy explained how learning the language of diversity is the most crucial part of learning to interact and embrace other cultures and beliefs. Learning the language of diversity is not learning a new or different language. It is learning how to embrace and promote differences and change the conversation about diversity.

“Diversity cannot be taught in a book,” Roy said. “It enhances all of our lives in interaction and relationships.”
Roy explained that without attending WSC, there would have been many things he would have never understood about the Midwestern culture and life. “Knowing people from small-town Nebraska gave me the confidence and language to deal with diverse people,” Roy said.
Roy began his journey at WSC in 1997 on a football scholarship. In 2002, he experienced the first Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on campus. After he graduated with a degree in human service counseling, he became the director of multicultural affairs until 2011.
While he was the director, Roy helped implement many programs that helped minority students and promoted multicultural experiences at WSC. Many of these programs have since departed, but Roy is hopeful that he will be able to commence some of them in the future.
“We need to train all students how to listen and how to react to the language of diversity.” Roy said.
Roy continually expressed how grateful he was to have had the chance to attend Wayne State College, and truly believes WSC helped him find his career path, gave him opportunities to apply his knowledge in real-life situations and most of all opened him up to become a model for diversity.
“Wayne State College is a hidden gem,” Roy said. “It is the premier institution in Nebraska.