The 2015-2016 school year saw the birth of a new program called the Writing Center. This program was established with the goal of motivating students and promoting better writing skills. Because the Writing Center now has a year of experience under its belt, it has been able to grow from its original designs and will continue to change next year.

Currently there are only two Writing Center periods that students can take—third and seventh—because this gives students the chance to come for help during their lunch blocks. One of the Writing Center goals for next year is to extend its availability across the first three periods of every school day so that there would be more opportunities for students to come. With more opportunities, there would be greater involvement from students, which would highly benefit the Writing Center and allow it to “become part of the culture” according to Ms. Rinder, the Writing Center sponsor.

Another goal that the Writing Center has for next year is to become more involved in community service.

“Writing center in itself is community service,” says English teacher Mrs. Glynn. Ms. Rinder, being a huge fan of “community service that doesn’t get congratulated,” would like to see Writing Center make an even bigger difference in the community in years to come.

As this new program does continue to develop and integrate itself within the culture of Dominion, it will also need to meet its more long-term goal of acquiring more space according to Mrs. Glynn and Ms. Rinder. As it is now, student tutors within the program are only allowed to verbally instruct others and not mark on their papers. Their instruction would be far more beneficial if students were allowed access to laptops or computers directly from the Writing center.

This means that the Writing Center, as it continues to grow, would benefit greatly if it had its own computer lab space where students could instantaneously edit their papers with other student tutors. This is a change that will take much time to form, and it won’t happen next year.

All of these goals and changes for Writing Center are not certain yet, and await approval from Dr. Brewer. The scheduling, space, and involvement of Writing Center within the school is all based on his decisions for what the school is able to do at this point in time.

As Mrs. Glynn and Ms. Rinder point out, the Writing Center is able to cut across all economic, age, and skill level lines by connecting students with other students.

It also promotes better learning and achievement in all subject areas. “When a kid is involved in writing,” says Ms. Rinder, “he’s involved in a higher level thinking skill.”

The students in Writing Center “did an amazing job of planning something and then growing from that,” says Ms. Glynn. They were able to effectively work in groups to assess the needs of the school’s writing skills and teach students with the goal of never turning anyone away.

The Writing Center is sponsored by the English department but run entirely by students. These students are required to have taken either AP Language and Composition or AP Literature as “they have to be writing at the highest level to teach” according to Ms. Rinder. Whenever a student comes to the Writing Center for help, they are directed by a student to another student tutor who will sit with them for around 10 minutes, providing them with guidance whether it be on an essay or a speech.

The students who run Writing Center take it as a class and have to meet certain requirements in order to pass. These include quarterly reflections, a minimum of 10 tutor sessions per quarter, and mini lessons where they often go into other English classes to teach a certain writing skill. None of these requirements are going to change for the students who take Writing Center next year.