WP :: News :: WRT 331 Connects With Middle School Students

photo: Wayne O'Connor

Peer Consultants Assist Students from Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection

by Brittany M. Baggett

On November 17th, peer consultants from Writing 331 invited students from the Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection to the Writing Center to receive help on an essay about the pollution in Onondaga Lake. The writers, seventh and eighth graders from Blodgett Middle School, were asked by Hillside organizers to “write persuasively about how the lake’s pollution affects them and what young people can do to help the clean up efforts.”

The Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection’s mission is to help children in the City of Syracuse became better students through job training and community engagement. Prior to their visit to the Writing Center, then, the students gathered background information about Onondaga Lake by searching for information online and visiting the lake to experience the pollution firsthand.

The peer consultants helped the middle schoolers brainstorm and develop their ideas for the essay, but also learned about the struggles that children face in the Westside community..

WRT 331 student Trinace Hickson commented after the session on the importance of meeting with local students, "I think it is important for us as students to get off the Hill and embrace those children who live around the University area.”

Jason Luther, instructor for Writing 331 and Writing Center Adminstrator, teaches his students strategies and methods for consulting their peers in the University Writing Center. However, this was the first time this class worked with middle school students instead of their Syracuse University peers.

Jess Weik, an English and Textural Studies major enrolled in the class, said, “We spend a lot of time talking about the ways we can help other college students with their writing and the majority of our time is spent on coming up with helpful strategies. In all the time we spend on campus figuring out ways to make students more aware of the services we provide, there are younger students who could benefit from the WC in much bigger ways. The Hillside students gave us a better perspective on how effective a little of our time can be, and I think it's something that should be implemented in the services provided by the Writing Center.”

Brittany Baggett is a Junior English Education Major and Writing Minor from Windham, New Hampshire; she is currently enrolled in WRT 331.