In Spring of 2020, just months before the whole world would shift due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, first-year writing students at UNC Asheville began coaching at Asheville High School’s new Writing Center. Although this service-learning partnership was short lived as both schools moved to remote learning in mid-March, UNCA’s Writing Program Coordinator Jessica Pisano and AHS’s Writing Center Director Amanda Galvin reworked the collaboration in August to accommodate online learning.
Using Google Meet, high school students were paired with first-year college students for more than 300 virtual coaching sessions over the course of the Fall 2020 semester. This service-learning partnership not only provides local high school students with one-on-one support with their writing, it also gives new college students opportunities to develop interpersonal communication and apply the writing skills they’re learning.
Later in the semester, upper-level teaching licensure students joined the partnership, crafting and facilitating a five-week college essay writing workshop for seniors at Asheville High. One pre-service teacher explains, “It is one thing to write it down on paper, but to actually help students write their own papers was an amazing experience.” This partnership was invaluable to licensure students and college seniors alike.
Jessica Pisano and Amanda Galvin are excited to continue this collaboration into Spring 2021 and beyond!
