So my first week on campus this summer is officially coming to a close today with some final work hours before a weekend away for Memorial Day. Wow, way too many rhyming words in that sentence, haha. This week has consisted of...
1. Collecting timesheets and having them signed by the always joyful Steve Singleton while Dr. Bob is away living up England! (We are all very jealous, though my roommate, as well as Manderson, is also in England with Dr. Bob so I'm sure I will hear plenty about the lovely trip!)
2. Watering the plants in the WC before leaving for the weekend (Anna noticed while she was here earlier in May that one is curiously expelling its leaves at an alarming rate...hmm).
3. Blogging...yay!
4. Reviewing the Moodle site for the Summer Writing Exercise for our incoming first-years with Lisa Stroschine, whose computer prowess has never failed to amaze me!
5. Glanced over past Alumni Newsletters for an idea of what Kobe and I will be working on later this summer...mostly hassling you recent graduates to hear about what's keeping you busy post-Coe. :)
6. Sorting through suggestions for how to revamp our WC website submitted by various Topics groups from this past spring.
Manderson and I will be discussing the website suggestions and figuring out how we can implement them when he gets back from England. Many of the suggestions for the website included easy-to-use tabs across the top of the screen rather than down the side to make navigation easier and maybe even adopting a "nesting" technique so we can utilize subcategories within these tabs. Comments also included revamping the website so the colors used are bold and captivating. Other suggestions I read that would really add to the flavor of our website was adding a scrolling consultants' comments bar at the bottom of the page for various consultant quotes, thoughts, and advice to peers or fellow consultants. This way our website can still have its own personality reflective of the people who work in it, but the information conveyed directly on the website's pages can avoid inside jokes and criticisms that may appear confusing or unprofessional to an outside reader/viewer. An event calendar with upcoming events, such as our Sunday Night Dinners and Tuesday Teas, would also be nice to include as well as the expectations we have as consultants of conferences and what we may or may not expect from writers looking for assistance.
As I worked this week, what I found particularly interesting were the Alumni Newsletters from years past. It's really amazing to read stories and comments of consultants from previous years and to notice that your average WC consultant personality--fun-loving, energetic, joyfully unique, passionately involved--has not changed one bit. Photos that accompany the staff newsletter biographies are still helter-skelter with next to no one looking directly at the camera but blissfully happy nonetheless. As a future teacher, it's inspiring and encouraging to read about WC alums who live in D.C. and work for the Teach for America program, or who's most fulfilling job is raising her children and teaching high school English. Not only are the stories and engagements fun to read about, the travel exploits admirable, but there are so many connections out there I don't think most consultants currently working in the WC are even aware of...I certainly wasn't until just the other day!
I was also shocked by the photos included in several of the newsletters of the various homes our Writing Center staff has had on Coe's campus. From what is now Stuart's basement bathroom, to the Peterson tunnel, to the most recent location in Gage annex, it's amazing to see how the consultants quickly adapt to each new space and how it is really the people and not the space itself that truly make the Writing Center the welcoming community it is. I'd love to include in this year's Alumni Newsletter a glance back at the past with all of these photos and maybe some reflection from Dr. Bob of what he has experienced over the years. It would also be great to include a section for "Making Connections" where WC alums can be grouped according to areas of study and work and new/current consultants have an idea of how graduates ahead of them are involved in their prospective communities.
Well that seems like enough to get me thinking for the day and hopefully for you readers as well. :) Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and I'll check-in again next week!
- Heidi Heaton
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