Writing Center Reflection

My decision to pursue a doctoral degree in rhetoric and composition with an emphasis on writing center studies would not have come about without the support of Dr. Alexandra Cavallaro, my faculty sponsor at California State University, San Bernardino. Dr. Cavallaro’s support helped me to connect my personal and professional experiences — such as my five years working as a English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor overseas in Poland, and my work as a volunteer literacy tutor in San Bernardino county after first emigrating to the United States — to relevant research in writing center studies connected to writing in the public sphere, and how two-year college writing centers can best serve at risk student populations.
My investment in the
Cavallaro’s Writing Center Studies class, in which I participated in the Winter 2016 quarter, I had the opportunity to collaborate with other students to generate a collection of ‘field notes,’ or in-depth observations of tutoring sessions in the CSUSB writing center, and at the Crafton Hills College tutoring center where I work. We were then asked to synthesize writing center theory and these observations into a ‘praxis’ paper; a combination of theory and practice. Building off the work of contemporary writing center scholars such as Nancy Grimm, Alice Gillam, and Rebecca Block, I was able to generate an original and constructive critique of how tutors and tutees interact with instructor prompts within tutoring sessions. Dr. Cavallaro and I are currently working on adapting this paper so that it can be submitted to the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in 2018, one of the most prestigious conferences associated with Writing Center Studies. This positive research experience has strengthened my conviction that I am currently able to work at the level of a PhD student, and that therefore pursuing a doctoral degree would allow me to extend that work to the communities I am involved with in San Bernardino