The writing center is an elegant, cosy place meant to foster comfort and creativity. The leather chairs and long tables make excellent work stations for one-on-one meetings. The room is nicely decorated with Cougar pride items, equipped with its own Cougar merchandise. There is a small laptop where students can fill out surveys after their appointments which will provide feedback for changes in the center. 

 I have not gotten a chance to coach yet, but I am excited to begin helping students soon. Having an extra pair of eyes is always beneficial when undertaking the writing process. I am sure when I start helping students with their writing that I will become much more aware of habits that I have when I write. I hope in turn they will learn from me whether we are tackling organization of the paper, the development of ideas, transitions between paragraphs, reducing wordiness, explaining grammar rules, generating outlines, brainstorming, the works!

I am also looking forward to improving the ways I communicate with people and learning how to best be helpful in this writing endeavor. I hope to help dissolve any stigmas around writing or having aid with writing. I really like UNC-Asheville’s motto for our writing center which employs people to come to the writing center not because they cannot write, but because they do. Even the greatest writers had editors. Even Thomas Jefferson, the famed writer of our Constitution had editors. He hated them, but he absolutely had them. It can be discouraging to have your paper marked up, but I do not want it to stay discouraging. I want my methods of helping writers to be nothing but encouraging.

 I hope this service learning gives me confidence to do more service learning in the future. I hope to make a difference in the way students at Asheville High view writing by providing them a comfortable space and reassurance that writing is hard but they can do it!