Northwestern students present at conference

Four Northwestern College students presented at the Iowa Writing Center Consortium Conference on April 4 at Morningside College in Sioux City.

Their presentation, entitled “Fortifying Collaboration: Complementing Strengths Matter in Writing Fellow Programs,” described the students’ experiences working within Northwestern’s First-Year Seminar (FYS). The new program is designed to help freshmen become introduced to the college and fellow classmates through intentionally small class sizes and deep discussions. Their research included their experience working as FYS writing fellows and how the different personalities and disciplinary backgrounds of the FYS professors and writing fellows influenced collaborative relationships in teaching writing to students in the program.

Student presenters included Deborah Admire, a senior from Pipe Creek, Tex., majoring in writing/rhetoric; Abbie Amiotte, a junior writing/rhetoric major from Colorado Springs, Colo.; Kinbrae Bezdicek, a senior from Jackson, Minn., majoring in English teaching and Spanish; and Kali Wolkow, a junior art/graphic design and journalism major from De Smet, S.D.

The conference served as an opportunity for writing center staff and students to share practices and research results with the goal of improving writing instruction on college campuses. The meeting was attended by members of numerous colleges across Iowa, including Iowa State University, Briar Cliff University and Mount Mercy University.