As a new student striving to find my niche as a Writing Center consultant at Boise State University, I am enrolled in English 303, which will (hopefully) help sharpen my skills as a writing consultant/mentor. My first project involves creating a blog in which I will record my thoughts, feelings and expectations from English 303 and my work in the Writing Center.
My first comment is a small disclaimer, as I have never attempted a blog before, thus I am blindly feeling my way through this process. I have read many blogs before, but have never taken the opportunity to actually participate in writing one. Thus, my efforts to create a blog of my own are very much a work in progress.
Our first meeting occurred on the Friday before the semester started. I did not have a clue what to expect, as I have never used the Writing Center before. Heck, my first time in the Writing Center was to apply for the position. How did I come to be interested in the Writing Center, you might ask? It is actually due to a friend and mentor I know who works at the Writing Center. In the interest of assigning credit where credit is due, and because at this point she will still claim credit for helping persuade me to apply, as I have not had enough time to screw up yet, I have to thank Amanda Carmona for the push. I have known Amanda for a year now through the Veteran’s Upward Bound program on campus. It is in place to help vets adjust to college life and Amanda provided assistance in English for vets. While I was attending Algebra refresher training, I asked her if she would mind looking over my first essay, which concerned contrasting and comparing the philosophies of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. She took the time to sit down with me and helped me refine my thesis paragraph and my final paragraph. I received my highest score during the entire class on that essay.
I continued to show Amanda my work in order to pick her brain and improve my writing skills. After a few papers, she mentioned the Writing Center and asked if I had ever considered working there. I told her that I had heard of it from other students, but did not feel that my writing was good enough to qualify me for the position. The subject was put aside until spring semester when Amanda informed me that the Writing Center was hiring for fall semester consultants. I took her advice and applied. The rest, obviously, is history. I was hired after meeting Clyde and Melissa and I am very happy for the opportunity to assist other students, as Amanda assisted me.
I go into this situation with the mindset that I do not know ANYTHING about writing or helping mentor others. Even though I have experience as an instructor from the military, I look at that as a totally different environment and am trying to clear my slate of any bad habits I might have picked up during that time. My main goal is to be able to help other students come to the realization that they can be great writers if they put their mind to it. I love it when I can see the student’s eyes light up when they come to that realization. To coin an oft used phrase, it’s like a light comes on in their mind. Helping others is very important to me and I hope that any experience I gain will be able to be imparted to other students in a clear and concise manner.
I like to use my newly found ability to empathize with others and employ the attitude that I should always treat others as I want to be treated. If I can treat struggling writers with respect and put myself in their shoes, I will be able to better connect with them and help them to help themselves. I realize that our job as a Writing Center consultant is not to do the work for them, but to coach them and ask leading questions to help them figure out the answers for themselves. If I can succeed in this endeavor, I will consider my time in the Writing Center a huge success.
I love the laid back atmosphere of the Writing Center and the tight knit family of consultants. Clyde and Melissa seem to provide the perfect “adult supervision” that is necessary for the Writing Center to function. And the experienced consultants with time “in the trenches” provide the “been there, done that” know-how and support that we rookies will need! I have nothing but the utmost respect and appreciation for everyone associated with the Writing Center and look forward to learning from them, in order to be the best writing consultant that I can possibly be.
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