YU Students and Faculty Take Part in Writing Centers Conference Six students and four administrators representing two undergraduate writing centers at Yeshiva University led an interactive session about the roles of writing centers at the International Writing Centers Association and National Conference on Peer Tutors of Writing joint conference on Thursday November 4. The joint conference, held in Baltimore, MD, brought together more than 900 peer, graduate and faculty tutors with directors of writing centers around the country to collaborate and share ideas and programs. The conference’s theme, “Safe Harbors or Open Seas” prompted presenters to situate writing center work in nautical terms.

The YU workshop, called “Something to Give in Return,” grew out of a joint meeting between the Wilf Campus Writing Center and the Stern College for Women Writing Center on March 7. Exploring the reciprocal relationships between writing centers and their institutions, the presentation encouraged participants to think about the influence and influencing of writing centers from the perspective of students, faculty, tutors and writing itself. The undergraduate tutors – Simeon Botwinick, Jason Miller and Jonathan Schwab of Yeshiva College and Lauren Burstein, Miriam Gofine and Nicole Grubner of Stern College for Women – attended other sessions on peer tutoring in addition to running their own. “It was fascinating to explore all the ways that tutors operate in schools across the nation,” said Schwab. “It definitely added to the way I think about my own tutoring.” The Yeshiva peer tutors were joined by Dr. Lauren Fitzgerald, director of the Wilf Campus Writing Center, Professor Lane Anderson, assistant director of the Wilf Campus Writing Center, Professor Andrea Efthymiou, assistant director of the Stern College Writing Center, and Professor Adina Kay-Gross, a faculty tutor at the Stern College Writing Center.