Re: Writing Centers as Practicum Sites (fwd)

[Dagmar Corrigan <corrigan@UHDVX3.DT.UH.EDU>]

Steve,
What you have described here is what I have experienced as a graduate 
student.  Although my situation was not arranged formally, as you 
described it, I have tutored in a community college writing center and 
it did lead to adjunct work- and more. It was an experience that helped 
me define my career goals. I feel compelled to tell you my story because  
I feel that what you are trying to do will make a difference, perhaps in 
more ways than you imagine. If you can't arrange it formally, maybe you 
can arrange something similar to my experiences.   It's a long story, but 
here goes- 

During the summer of 1993, I was taking a tutor training practicum from 
the University of Houston Clear-Lake, (UHCL 
is a junior/senior/master's level university; therefore, no GTA program for 
teaching freshman comp, etc.).  I would become 
one of the founding tutors of this writing center and would later go on to 
become the GTA  
for the director, Chloe Diepenbrock.  While I was learning about tutoring 
that summer, I also 
started working at Lee College's (a community college) writing center.  
My job at Lee was to help students with the computers and to 
tutor. I was paid hourly by the community college.  After I completed the 
practicum at UHCL, I was also hired and paid hourly to tutor in UHCL's 
writing center.  I tutored in both writing centers for over a year when I 
was offered adjunct work from Lee. While I was finishing my thesis, I 
worked as an adjunct at Lee, continued to be Chloe's GTA, and tutor at 
UHCL until I finished in 1996.

 This was great experience for me because I was able to 
work with a wide range of students, from basic writers at the community college level to 
faculty members at UHCL, and I really developed my tutoring skills. At 
this point and as a direct result of my writing center experiences both 
at the community college level and at UHCL, I knew I wanted to become a 
writing center director. With Chloe as my thesis director,
I developed the idea for my thesis from my work at Lee College, 
was given permission to distribute a survey for my thesis to Lee College 
students and faculty, and used their writing center as a model for my thesis.  

Since I started at Lee, many others from UHCL's tutor training practicum 
have also followed in my footsteps, so to speak.  What has been created here 
over the last 5 years has been a mutually beneficial working 
relationship between these two institutions.  Most of the graduate 
students that have worked in both writing centers have 
been offered adjunct work at Lee College. This can 
be attributed  directly to Chloe's  tutor training and her comp/rhet 
courses.  Although I have heard Chloe grumble good-naturedly about Lee 
"stealing" her tutors, I feel that she has accomplished what a professor 
is supposed to do and that is to prepare marketable graduates.

Good luck with this endeavor, Steve.  It has really worked for me.   

Sincerely,
Dagmar Corrigan

BTW:  Currently I am a lecturer at the University of Houston-Downtown and 
a tutor in the writing center.