In this blog post, we include narratives written by the recipients of the 2024 SSWCA Conference’s Travel Grants and Registration Waiver Grants.
Central Bucks High School South (Warrington, PA) – Registration Waiver Recipient
Several students from our school, Central Bucks High School South, received registration grant waivers to attend SSWCA’s 2024 Conference, Planting, Nurturing, Pruning, Thriving. We are so thankful to have been awarded this grant. Receiving the fee waiver helped to reduce the out-of-pocket cost for those tutors who attended and reduced our need to fundraise so that we could focus on our mission—helping writers write—instead of worrying about how to make more money.
As a new center established in 2022, this was our first time participating in a conference. It provided an incredible opportunity that gave us the chance to focus fully on how to better our writing and our center for an entire weekend.
At the conference, we were able to attend many enlightening sessions and present our own findings. These sessions provide valuable insight into the methods that other writing centers use to function and from them we were able to create actionable goals that we brought back to our own center. Some of our favorite session topics were AI policy, collegiate partnerships, and mission statements.
Attending the conference was also a great social opportunity. Traveling to Boston together as a writing center team gave us the chance to bond and to craft clearer common goals. The time together strengthened our team, which is crucial to serving our larger school community.
We were also thrilled to be able to form new professional relationships with tutors and teachers from writing centers across the nation. This allowed us to compare writing center practices and formed a launch board for conversation.
Once again, we are very thankful for the opportunity for have been able to attend this year’s SSWCA conference and are grateful to have received fee waivers.
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Longmeadow High School Writing Center (Longmeadow, MA) – Travel Grant Recipient
By Jonathan Weil, Director
The Longmeadow High School Writing Center opened its doors for the first time in September of 2023, and we have spent our first year working to fulfill our mission to “support and empower all writers at every stage of the writing process.” Our writing center is run by students for students under the guidance of a faculty director. We are open all day, every day, with a staff of trained tutor-consultants who understand the importance of writing and know first-hand that effective writing requires hard work and reflection. As part of our mission, we are committed to providing a welcoming and collaborative space for students of all levels and abilities, working in any discipline. Our goal is to help writers improve through reflection and revision, and to strengthen the culture of learning and the spirit of collaboration in the LHS community.
The conference theme this year felt particularly relevant to our situation. We’ve “planted seeds” and are in the early stages of what looks to be a successful writing center. Collaboration and connection are what got us this far—from a seminar about secondary school writing centers that I attended at a local university a few years ago, to the intensive planning that engaged the entire faculty, to the ongoing conversations we’re having this year as we figure it out together. To nurture and sustain our center so that it continues to thrive for years to come, it felt important to connect and collaborate beyond our school walls.
The travel grant from SSWCA allowed numerous opportunities for this. While we were unable to send student tutors this year, I came away from this conference energized and excited, with a notebook filled with new ideas, action steps, and follow-up plans. (Chatting with fellow writing center directors before my final session at the conference, I joked that I’d recorded at least 30 specific ideas to follow up on after the conference. After that session, I had about a half dozen more!)
I’ve already followed up on some of these steps, revamping our training and improving our organizational structure to better reflect our mission and values, whether by setting up “veteran/novice” pairings, creating a list of opportunities for existing tutors to “level up,” assigning tutor liaisons to teachers across disciplines, or developing ways to address the changing role of technology in writing. Attending the SSWCA conference reminded me that there are so many opportunities to nurture this new resource.
Looking back at the conference, my only disappointment is that I wasn’t able to bring students, particularly because of how impressed I was by the quality and professionalism of the student presenters I saw. I know our tutors would have felt as energized and excited as I did to reflect on their work within the larger context of writing center culture and pedagogy. But the ideas from the conference have already led to many productive conversations and new ideas, and we’ll look for opportunities to attend a future conference, as well as opportunities to stay connected to the SSWCA community.
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Saline High School Writing Center (Saline, MI) – Travel Grant Recipient
The Saline High School Writing Center has done many things both for the school and for the community, from hosting holiday-themed writing contests to sharing writing with the Saline Area Senior Center. Recently, on March 13-16, fourteen Writing Center consultants traveled to Boston, Massachusetts to attend and present at the Secondary Schools Writing Center Association (SSWCA) national conference. There, they met tutors and advisors from other schools who they learned many strategies from; these consultants were from places such as Idaho and Arizona along with more local schools, such as Skyline High School in Ann Arbor.
While tutors from the SHS Writing Center have attended the SSWCA conference and advisors Mrs. Denzin and Ms. Clark have presented in previous years, no SHS students have ever presented there; at least, not until this year. All fourteen students who attended the conference were part of one of three presentations put forward by the SHS Writing Center. These presentations covered writing anxiety and apprehension, our Writing Center working with both the senior center and elementary schools, and our online submissions program. The SSWCA conference has a theme every year: “The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Planting, Nurturing, Pruning, and Thriving,’ and I felt that these ideas were represented in all presentations in various ways,” said Mara McClellan, a junior consultant.
The SHS Writing Center is unique; we do mainly online submissions, as many students do not have time during their classes to go in person to the Writing Center to get consultant help. This presentation covered the process of how tutors can review writers’ pieces without being with them. Maddie Finocchiaro, a junior consultant who presented about the online submissions, claimed, “We believe it’s important to establish a connection with the student.” The mission of the SHS Writing Center is to assist students with their writing process and act as a safe space for writing of any kind. Related to that mission, another group presented on the apprehension and anxiety that writers face during the writing process.
Offering options of ways to help with writing anxiety, the group was able to make writing apprehension seem less scary and inform many other tutors and advisors on how they can make their writing centers a more comfortable space for writers. Finally, a third group presented on how the SHS Writing Center works with both the Saline Area Senior Center and the elementary schools to connect with more writers and gain more knowledge about writing and the creative process.
When not presenting, the group of sixteen people from SHS, fourteen consultants and two advisors, explored Boston. From doing a scavenger hunt to simply walking around, the students got to know each other better and created memories full of laughter and inside jokes. Nicky Steinert, a senior consultant, said that “[his] favorite memory from the trip was probably the time we got to spend exploring Boston together as a group. We had the chance to walk around the city one night and see Boston’s harbor, and this was a great opportunity for some photos and fun memory-making!”
This year, the conference was a huge success for the whole SHS Writing Center, even for the students who were not able to go. The consultants who presented there were able to bring back many ideas of how our writing center can be changed or possibly improved to allow the sense of community in writing that we are striving for.
Interview Questions with answers from Mara McClellan, Maddie Finocchiaro, and Nicky Steinert
1. In your own words, what was this conference about?
Mara McClellan – The individual presentations covered a variety of topics, but the conference as a whole was designed to allow tutors from all over the country to exchange ideas about how we can become better at what we do. The theme of this year’s conference was “Planting, Nurturing, Pruning, and Thriving,” and I felt that these ideas were represented in all presentations in various ways.
Maddie Finocchiaro – This conference was a chance for members of the writing center to get together and discuss and learn from each other.
Nicky Steinert – The SSWCA conference was all about growing secondary schools’ writing centers across the country. It was an opportunity for our own writing center, as well as many others nationwide, to come together and share some different strategies and approaches in order to collectively improve the process of tutoring and providing writing-related advice.
2. What did you present on and why?
Mara McClellan – My group presented on writing anxiety and how tutors can help clients work through this type of anxiety. The topic was somewhat personal to me since I have previously dealt with the fear that people would judge me because of my writing–I have often been afraid of receiving feedback on my writing assignments for fear of what the other person might say. By working on the presentation, I have become more equipped to help myself and others who may be experiencing writing anxiety.
Maddie Finocchiaro – My group presented on online submissions and how to make them more personal. We get a lot of online submissions in our writing center, so we believe its important to establish a connection with the student.
Nicky Steinert – I presented on multi-generational writing, and how we incorporate interactions with writers of all ages into our work as the Saline Writing Center. Our work with the Saline Area Senior Center Writers Group, as well as writers across the elementary schools, has been a highlight of my time in the writing center, and my group felt it would be beneficial to share these interactions at the conference, so as to inspire other writing centers to go forth and implement similar programs.
3. Did you meet anyone at the conference that you learned a lot from/became good friends with?
Mara McClellan – I didn’t meet anyone new that I really connected with, but I loved that I was able to spend more time with other SHS consultants with whom I was less familiar. There are a lot of great people in our Writing Center!
Nicky Steinert – I learned a lot from many of the presenters at the conference, as we had various opportunities to sit in on a range of presentations from both students and instructors. The SSWCA President, Stacey Hahn, began the conference with some important notes about the writing process, along with the valuable role that writing centers play in shaping the writers of the future.
4. What did you do in Boston with the rest of the group?
Mara McClellan – When we weren’t at the conference, we did a competitive scavenger hunt around Boston, went sightseeing/shopping, and ate some really good food. I had never been to Boston prior to the conference, so I really liked that we were able to explore.
Maddie Finocchiaro – On the days we did not attend the conference, we went sightseeing around Boston. My favorite part was the Boston Public Library as it was beautiful and filled with amazing literature.
Nicky Steinert – During our time in Boston not spent at the conference, our group was able to explore various parts of the city. We competed in a scavenger hunt, and once my team had won we ended up at the Quincy Market for lunch. After this, we got to see the Boston Common, a beautiful public park looking out on the city’s skyline. We also did some shopping and found some great places to eat while we were in Boston for the conference.
5. What was your favorite memory from the trip? (try and make it small/detailed if possible; make it unique!)
Mara McClellan – On the second night of the trip, we took some time to explore the city at night. We stopped to get cannolis, walked along a sidewalk by the water, and took a picture of Ms. Clark on Clark Street. At that point in the day, we were all so tired that everything, even my lactase pills for my lactose intolerance, seemed absolutely hilarious. I had been under a lot of stress in the weeks leading up to the conference, so the laughter was exactly what I needed.
Maddie FinocchiaroMy favorite memory from the trip was going to Chinatown and shopping!
Nicky Steinert – My favorite memory from the trip was probably the time we got to spend exploring Boston together as a group. We had the chance to walk around the city one night and see Boston’s harbor, and this was a great opportunity for some photos and fun memory-making! Also, the location of the conference at UMass-Boston was gorgeous, and we were able to spend some time walking along the water on our last day before we departed for home.
6. Is there anything else that you would like to say about the trip?
Maddie Finocchiaro – It was an incredible opportunity.
Nicky Steinert – The SHS Writing Center’s trip to Boston for the SSWCA conference was a highlight of my time as a consultant, and I can’t wait to implement some of the strategies we discussed into our own center’s work. If you’re on the fence about becoming a consultant, this is a major benefit of choosing to do so!
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Amsterdam High School / Amsterdam Writing Rams – Travel Grant Recipient
by Max Grant, Tutor
Springing forth in September of 2023 via the work of our director, Stacey Hahn, the Amsterdam High School (AHS) Writing Center has been striving to accommodate and acclimate to their student clientele. In the short time since their opening, the AHS Writing Rams have stepped up to improve upon their current skill set with open eyes and minds to those who come in.
In 2024, the AHS Writing Center was fortunate enough to receive a full travel grant to take us from Amsterdam, New York down to Boston for the SSWCA 2024 Planting, Nurturing, Pruning, Thriving Conference. The theme of this year’s conference was gardening and helping said garden flourish, and it certainly felt as if our group’s toolset grew and that our experiences there led our bonds to flourish! Even before our arrival in Boston, the excitement of going out of state to learn from and show our chops to other centers left us famished and eager to go, with many of our own tutors collaborating to create presentations of their own!
Despite this being the center’s first time going to a larger-scale conference, we took it in stride, from traveling by train to navigating the subway to figuring out sessions to attend. We aimed to take in every drop of advice and encouragement to grow our skills. Many of the sessions led to revelations on how to improve our writing center to be more accommodating towards our fellow students with disabilities or a lack of confidence in their skills. In particular, we want to try using recorded audio sessions for students with reading disabilities or using more creative and visual forms of tutoring work. From the conference, we had many discussions about how to truly improve the quality of the work not only in the center but in the people that we help.
When thinking over the SSWCA conference, more than the fun and excitement of being around other writing centers comes to mind. I think of walking around the bay with my classmates and taking pictures, eating dinner and sharing laughs, and rushing downstairs to not be late for breakfast. I think the theme of the conference–Planting, Nurturing, Pruning, Thriving– related a lot to us planting the seeds of our comradery in our center itself and continuing to nourish that as we interacted both with ourselves and others over the course of our trip. The conference itself only further served to bond us together and allow us to see more sides of ourselves–to be more vulnerable. And that is what we all need to truly grow.
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Jenny Goransson / George Mason University (Fairfax, VA) – Travel Grant Recipient
As someone who grew up in Maine*, about an hour north of Boston, I was excited to be able to travel “home” to New England for this year’s SSWCA conference, and was grateful to receive a travel grant to help with those travel costs. As I’ve mentioned before, the SSWCA conference always feels like a bit of a family reunion due to how many years I’ve been involved in this work. It is also, of course, an opportunity to make new connections with students and colleagues from other regions, and to be exposed to exciting and innovative ideas in the presentations. Although I did not get to attend as many sessions as I would have liked due to my behind-the-scenes responsibilities at the conference, I did have the pleasure of attending a few.
First, Jennifer Tannous’s “Planting Spaces for ESL Students in the Writing Center by Cycling Visits” was a fun and interactive session that offered a glimpse into collaborative activities that her center (Central Bucks South High School, PA) utilized to welcome English Language Learner students into their writing center space. I very much enjoyed one particular activity we did in that session: building a structure with blocks, while blindfolded, guided by a partner–so much fun!
Later that Friday afternoon I attended the “Tutor Leadership Roundtable,” led by Laika Olwana and Hanne Brabander, the SSWCA Board’s tutor representatives. It was by far the most energetic, laughter-filled roundtable I have attended at any conference, and I mean that in a good way. In attendance were 20 tutors from different schools across the country, sharing the joys, challenges, and success stories of SSWC work – from the tutor perspective. Laike and Hanne asked engaging open-ended questions and also shared insights from their own experiences as leaders in their own respective writing centers (Etowah High School, GA, and Algonquin Regional High School, MA). The highlight of this session for me was definitely the roleplaying activities at the end, where Laika and Hanne gave participants a tutoring scenario and asked for volunteers to come up and act out a mock tutoring session. It was at times hilarious, and other times just a demonstration of how skilled these tutors are at navigating challenging or stressful scenarios. As a former (current?) theatre nerd, I loved it.
Friday was a full day of conference-ing, but I took a power nap (or at least got my body horizontal and stared zombie-like into space) for 25 minutes before joining my friend Jenn Wells (aka Dr. JDubs, one of our conference sponsors – psst, check out her amazing online college essay workshops, high school seniors!) at Kura, a nearby revolving sushi bar for dinner. Later that evening I gathered at the directors social for a few hours and enjoyed getting to know some of my SSWC colleagues better, sharing ideas and stories until too late into the evening for people who needed to wake up at the break of dawn for conference sessions the next day…
On Saturday morning, Hannah Baran’s session, “Fertilizer Not Manure: Nurturing a Healthy, Happy Peer Tutoring Ecosystem with Four Key Ingredients” helped myself and other audience members consider ways to intentionally foster community and relationships among tutoring staff, especially important given the much-discussed ongoing adolescent mental health crisis. Hannah shared specific examples of activities and approaches she uses with her tutors at Albemarle High School (Charlottesville, VA) and also facilitated a discussion of what others in the room have done at their schools.
It was also a pleasure to present sessions this year on a few different topics: mindfulness practices for teachers/tutors giving feedback on student writing (see above photo); partnerships between universities, SSWCs and National Writing Project sites (with Amber Jensen, Tom Deans, Katherine Greene, and Tanya Baker); and a special interest group for learning centers. The latter was at the end of the conference after many people had already departed, so it ended up being a lovely one-on-one conversation with one director whose center is expanding from a writing center into tutoring other subjects like Math. I gave the closing comments at the end of the conference, too, where I led everyone in offering a heartfelt “thank you” to this year’s conference committee (Melissa Morgan, Jamie Davis, and Stacey Hahn), and to our outgoing SSWCA president Stacey Hahn, who has left an indelible mark on our community through her leadership in the past two years. Finally, I made the first public announcement of our 2025 conference theme and location: Views from the Trail 2025! Hope to see you in Provo next year!
* And my parents still live in Maine, which meant that for the first time in my decade of attending SSWCA/CAPTA conferences, they were able to attend the conference and see with their own eyes this amazing community I’ve been telling them about for years. They volunteered as moderators on Friday (thanks, Mama and Papa!), which ended up being especially helpful because we ran out of string for the nametag lanyards that morning – eek! – and they were able to bring some ribbon from home to help us out. NOTE TO SELF: Bring extra nametag lanyards to 2025 conference. NOTE TO ALL: You’re never too old to ask for help from your parents/family!
Above: At the registration desk catching up with longtime friend and mentor Dr. Amber Jensen (former SSWCA President)
Above: Melissa Morgan, Stacey Hahn, and me at the end of the conference