Schedule of Events

Students may come into the writing center with pre-existing feelings including anxiety over grades, self-doubt about their writing abilities, or feelings of imposter syndrome. While working with these students, writing center consultants frequently face an almost invisible demand of emotional labor, as they are expected to not only provide academic guidance but also empathy, active listening, and validation — behaviors typically associated with counseling roles. The lines between these two roles may be blurred, potentially creating challenges for both tutors and students. Consultants may find themselves taking on more emotional burden than they are trained for which could lead them to burnout, which in turn affects students who may not receive the emotional or writing support they need. This is why it is important for consultants to establish certain boundaries when navigating these situations and for administrators to facilitate these types of conversations through training or advising. 
This session highlights the emotional labor expected of and often performed by consultants, showcasing the similarities between consultants and counselors. It also emphasizes the limits of the consultant’s role in the consulting session as well as providing strategies for consultants to offer empathetic support while also setting boundaries when navigating this fine line. By having these conversations both in the field and within individual writing centers, consultants can foster a supportive environment for students that respects both their academic and emotional needs.

This session will explore how writing centers can become inclusive spaces specifically for international students, focusing on fostering cultural humility as a key strategy to support their academic and emotional well-being.

Along with students, whose development through the Writing Center is evident, Writing Center consultants and staff are simultaneously subject to their own personal development. Through the implementation of literacy training, work ethic, and diverse social experience, Writing Centers offer and instill growth in student consultants on the path to professionalism.

Most writing centers are equipped with resources to train consultants on best practices to follow when it comes to interacting with students. As peer-writing consultants, we often aim to be “friendly”,  “ accommodating”, “energetic” or “welcoming”, and there are plenty of physical texts available which attempt to train and/or teach these characteristics. However, a consultant could potentially read all the writing centers informative material and still either not be able, or not know how, to put this knowledge into tangible practice. Therefore, what internally goes into fully embodying these positive traits is what we are exploring within this project. Through observations of multiple sessions by novice and experienced peer tutors and critically examining our own experiences, we have seen tutors often struggle to establish meaningful connections with their clients. The disconnect in consultations can create an environment that feels more exclusive than inclusive. For students that already feel marginalized and overlooked in academic settings, the lack of connection can further isolate them. With the right energy, a sense of belonging can dwell in the center, which is essential for productive learning where all students can feel supported and seen. In this hope, we are aiming to construct innovative strategies to implement into the training processes of new consultants. These practices will aid in equipping consultants with both the internal and external confidence as well as the knowledge needed to make a positive impact on a diverse population of student writers and on the WC as a whole.