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Articles Conference Reviews |
IWCA Collaborative @CCCCIWCA Collaborative @CCCC: Writers on the Move: Building Bridges to the Community This session was part of the pre-conference workshop, “Writing Centers Collaborative @ CCCCs,” presented by Rusty Carpenter from the University of Central Florida (UCF). In this collaborative roundtable session, Carpenter began by discussing a community engagement project currently taking place at UCF called “Writers on the Move.” One of the goals of the Writers on the Move project is establishing “Writing is Power Centers” (WiPCs) at local elementary, middle, and high schools. Undergraduate writing tutors and volunteers from UCF’s Creative Writing program help coordinate writing center efforts in the WiPCs. The project also attempts to build bridges between different educational programs using technology and research. After providing an overview of the Writers on the Move Program and its accomplishments, Carpenter shifted the roundtable to a discussion format by having us consider a series of questions related to high school outreach and other engagement projects. The engaging roundtable discussion centered on issues central to writing center theory and community engagement projects. A key topic was resources and funding; after voicing concerns about limited budgets and time, participants brainstormed creative ways of gathering resources for community engagement projects. Suggestions included involving graduate and undergraduate students in projects as part of service learning/coursework, involving community partners in grant writing, and seeking internal funds through professional development or campus engagement initiatives. A second topic discussed at length in the roundtable was redefining the writing center to go beyond just one-on-one tutorials to help accommodate these new types of engagement projects. Also discussed were the challenges of setting up writing centers in high schools—how the tutoring practices developed for higher education may fail to map onto high schools and how writing centers in high schools can avoid some of the remediation baggage that can accompany writing center work at the college level. Overall, I found the session to be engaging and thought-provoking. It’s exciting to think about how writing centers might become more involved with community literacy projects and in encouraging students of all levels to focus more on their writing practices. The Writers on the Move program can serve as a model for other institutions and writing centers looking to start community engagement projects. |