Writing Center
Experience
2015- Present - Lead Consultant and RIDES Coordinator, Metro State University Denver - Denver, Co
​
Fall 2015 – Writing Tutor, University of Colorado, Boulder – Boulder, CO
Leadership
MSU Denver serves over 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the Denver area and our writing center held over 56,000 writing consultations in the 2018-2019 school year. We employ approximately 45 student and professional writing consultants, as well as front desk coordinators.
​
In my role as lead consultant for the MSU Denver Writing Center I serve on the leadership team, help to supervise over 40 writing consultants, hold various responsibilities and am in charge of several projects.
​
As a team, we focus on being a deliberately developmental organization, and therefore encourage all of our employees to work on developing skills at work that they can utilize throughout every aspect of their lives. Our main mission is to “welcome all writers” and we have either brought in guest speakers or created our own trainings on social justice in the writing center, including concepts such as decolonizing the writing center, inviting chaos, and respecting multiple Englishes.
​
I am personally responsible for updating and maintaining the writing center website, Title IX training, and maintaining relationships with other departments. I am in charge of one of our larger writing center locations and four of our smaller satellite locations across campus, including the STEM lab, Social Work, and the LGBTQ Resource Center. I also plan the staff team building activities such as game nights, scavenger hunts and talent shows. My biggest responsibility is the RIDES Program.
​
​
Tutoring Pedagogy
Like most writing center consultants, I firmly believe privileging high order concerns (HOCs) such as thesis statements, organization, proper support and attention to logical analysis, over low order concerns (LOC) such as issues of grammar, usage, punctuation and other mechanics. However, I also believe that this focus leaves a gap in knowledge for a certain population of students: culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners. This is why I started the Roadrunners Interested in English Language Skills (RIDES) program.
​
A typical session would begin with my asking the writer what s/he needs help with and then reading the assignment prompt. If s/he doesn't know what to focus on, we usually begin by reading the assignment out loud. Otherwise, we dig in on the issue. I try to figure out his/her learning style early in the process, and adapt accordingly (see below). I avoid answering questions such as “what do you think I should do?” and instead try to lead them through their own invention process. I usually begin by asking them why they have chosen to write on their particular topic. What do they find interesting about it?
If the writer is in the early stages of the essay, we brainstorm approaches. I will often use examples from my own writing experience to show how I came up with a topic or figured out how to narrow it down. If they simply feel lost, without direction, then I will try to model for them, in the moment, how I would approach the issue they are having. If, on the other hand, they have a real sense of what they want to accomplish and need to work on, then I simply answer their questions by first restating them in a way that makes it clear that I both understand their predicament and that they probably have the answer already and simply need a new perspective on the situation. Then, we can discuss what type of support is necessary and where to find it.
​
I help writers with every step in the process, from understanding the assignment and brainstorming through editing and proofreading. I often have repeat writers who make weekly appointments for the semester so that we can work on every stage of the assignment. These are often the most productive relationships because the writer and I establish a special trust and work as a team. I work on a different aspect of the assignment with the writer each time, and give the writer homework to prepare for our next session.
​
I have worked with undergraduate, graduate students, and faculty.
RIDES
​
As the RIDES Coordinator, I piloted a new program called Roadrunners Interested in Developing English Skills (RIDES), which is currently in its second year. The program consists of specialized writing consultation for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners. As coordinator, I am in charge of recruitment, training, management, applying for grants, evaluation and assessment, bringing in guest speakers, and supervising consultants in their various duties. I supervise a staff of 7-12 consultants for this program, alone. I also created a new course currently going through the approval process entitled “Tutoring & Teaching Multilingual Writers.” This course is intended for all students, but will be a pre-requisite for anyone wanting to work as a consultant for the RIDES program beginning Spring 2020.
​
The program began as outreach to our ELL students and, working in conjunction with Immigrant Services, our goal was to provide this special population of students with access to grammar and mechanical instruction and help. I designed the training and supervise a staff of writing consultants who work with RIDES clients and also work on projects, such as marketing or event planning to enrich the RIDES program. Students who join are paired with a specific writing consultant and meet with that person for one to two 30-minute sessions per week for ten weeks. This enables the consultants and clients to form a relationship and build upon shared successes. In fact, I am very proud to say that one of my own RIDES clients has improved so much that he was awarded a writing center scholarship that was judged by a blind committee.
​
The RIDES program also offers seminars, team building events, a weekly newsletter and blog, and the opportunity to provide feedback to faculty if clients desire. We have clients perform the same writing task at their first and final appointments that I use in my assessment of the program.
I am currently also writing grant proposals for funding our program and have consulted for the University of Colorado and the Community College of Aurora to help them implement similar programs at their colleges.
​
Race & Class Issues
One of the main issues that most writing teachers and writing center tutors face is the power of language to change a person. Our identity is often strongly tied to our linguistic language. When I was in graduate school, I had a friend express to me how difficult it was for her to go home after attending university because her family and friends didn't understand her and she felt like a foreigner in her own home. She was expressing what a lot of first generation college students feel when torn between their new academic community and their home lives. Most teachers/tutors think of this as a race issue, and that is certainly a big part of it, but this friend was a white country girl from a small town in Southern Illinois. The fact is, the academy, and the language we speak, is getting further and further away from the average lives of most Americans. This is something that we need to consider with every writer that we work with.
​
Recently, the MSU Denver writing center staff read and discussed two books, Other People's English: Code-Meshing, Code-Switching, and African American Literacy and Writing Centers and the New Racism: A Call for Sustainable Dialoge and Change. The former focuses on the difference between code-switching and code-meshing, advocating for the need for instructors, tutors and writers to be aware of the way learning to write in standard edited American English can affect a person's psychological sense of self and his or her relationship to others. The authors also examine a very popular text, often lauded for its portrayal of "black speech," The Help and explain how the author actually made many mistakes with syntax. It's a compelling read that makes me want to design a composition course based on this text. Engaging students of all backgrounds in this discussion could not only help their writing, but also provide a strong topic for engaging critical thinking and argument skills.The latter book is more inclusive, in that it claims itself that the theories it espouses could be applied to many different races, and more radical, in that it calls for major change at the university level beyond just awareness.
In my roles, both as instructor and tutor, I struggle with how to best serve my students, given these ideas. On the one hand, while I don't wish to force students to change, I also recognize that my job is to prepare them for writing at the college-level and beyond. It would be a disservice to tell them that their language doesn't matter, even if I believe it shouldn't. So, I walk the line carefully. I never directly "correct" a student. I always assure him or her that there's nothing wrong with the way s/he speaks, while also offering up that the audience might not feel the same way. Most importantly, however, I encourage writers to maintain their own voice. I never tell them how to say something. I simply explain the implications of what they have already written, how it could be construed or misconstrued, and let them come up with alternatives, if they so desire.
Other Projects
Video Projects
The English department at MSU automatically schedules writing center orientations for each composition course. Since there is no way to visit online courses, I designed an online orientation for our distance learning students.
​
​
Website Administration
I am in charge of updating and maintaining the MSU Denver Writing Center Website. I am trained in Terminal 4 and am responsible for the organization and look of the website.
​
Since I have been the website administrator, I decided to add a special section for the RIDES program, an Employee Hub, location maps and embedded calendars.
Team Building Activities
In a writing center with over 45 employees and approximately 10 locations across campus, create a community and culture can be a challenge. This is why, a few years ago, I began planning team building events. Every semester, we have a game night where I bring in board games and we order pizza to one of our locations. All locations close early so that all staff can come and participate.
​
In the fall, I plan a scavenger hunt that takes place all over the Auraria campus. Employees are divided into teams and are sent to several locations on campus where they have to either photograph or videotape themselves performing humorous tasks, and the winner gets a grand prize.
​
In the spring, I plan a talent show. All employees are encouraged to perform a talent, provide video of themselves performing, hang their artwork or even bake some desserts to share their passions with the staff.
​
We try to do something every summer as well, such as a film night or game night.
Sidecar Project
I was involved with the sidecar project at MSU Denver since its inception. This program lasted for approximately two years and was designed to embed writing advisors and tutors into specific classrooms from several disciplines to give guest in-class workshops and become intimately familiar with the instructor’s writing assignments.
​
Initially, we worked in teams and I was embedded in two history courses and an art class. Now we just embed one student per class, and I have worked with the same history professor, at his request, every semester.
​
The professors gave us an idea, at the beginning of the semester, about their assignments, due dates, and goals. We then did an orientation with their class, and explained our role. While all tutors are available to work with them, I have usually had a few students each semester who makes recurring appointments with me for the duration of the semester.
​
I also visited the classroom several times during the semester to discuss approaches to the specific assignments. These visits were usually focused on one or two specific aspect of their writing, based on feedback from the instructor. I have done workshops on thesis development, active voice, being concise and detailed, and timed writing.
​
As part of the sidecar project, I also reached out to the Honor's Program to set up a relationship with the writing center, including embedding a tutor in their honor's thesis capstone course.
Conferences
For the last several years I have attended the Colorado Wyoming Writing Tutors Conference (CWWTC) where I attended sessions on both approaches to tutoring and activities to help train tutors and inspire buy-in and ownership of the writing center by those tutors.
​
At the 2016 conference, I also attended the Pre-Conference Workshop on Assessment for Directors, where I learned how to create assessments, and how best to utilize the metrics of the writing center. We discussed departmental outreach, student feedback, and how to convince the university to fund writing center projects.
​
In 2017 I attended a symposium associated with this conferences on performing Writing Center Assessments. We explored different ways to approach assessment to improve the writing center and make it appeal to other departments at the university.
​
In 2018 I attended a summer retreat, with guest speaker Shanti Bruce, on how to perform staff training and professional development in writing centers.y
​
In 2019 I presented my research and assessment of the RIDES program to TutorCon 2019.
​
​
​
2019 – MSU Denver Writing Center Fall Kickoff – presented on customer service and professionalism with a goal of developing a professional code of conduct, Also led sessions on RIDES, Employee Manual Jeopardy, and participated in leadership team speed dating.
​
2019 – MSU Denver Writing Center Spring Kickoff – presented on the RIDES program and customer service in the writing center.
​
2018 – MSU Denver Writing Center Fall Kickoff – Presented “Adventures in Acronyms” on how to tutor using the SQ3R reading method, the MEAL plan and IMRAD. Also presented on how to use essential oils to help facilitate stress in the writing center consultation.
​
2018 – MSU Denver Writing Center Spring Kickoff – Presented and facilitated a discussion on Title IX, the Clery Act, and sexual harassment – how to identify it, responsibilities of students and staff, why it’s important and how to report it.