Franklin & Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College

The Writing Center

April 2012

Tutors (To-Be) Emereti

by Sydney Pierce '13

As another spring blossoms at the Writing Center, we must bid farewell to our wonderful senior tutors. We’d like to take this moment to celebrate their accomplishments and look forward to each bright future!


Kevin Brown has exciting plans for his post-grad life! He’ll be working with Emerging Writers Festival poet Christine Hemp as she begins to launch a radio show in Boston, helping her work on marketing and securing backers. He plans to meet some cool people and work some interesting part-time jobs, but eventually Kevin hopes to teach high school. His favorite thing about working at the Writing Center was forming friendships with people he might never have met otherwise. He also found a comfortable place to complete a huge amount of coursework, and he has learned how to use a coffee maker—a skill you can’t put a price on.

Katie Delaney isn’t quite sure what she’ll be up to next year, but she’s looking forward to whatever it is. Katie plans to take a year to work a little and find some clarity before committing to a career direction to move in. Katie has dozens of fond Writing Center memories and had to spend quite some time sifting through them to find her absolute favorites. She particularly remembers our Thanksgiving celebration in March (yes, March) and her experiences at Tutor training every August. She has loved learning that everyone should talk about their writing—that a second pair of eyes “provides clarity and confidence.” 
 
Taylor Dunbar answered my question about her plans for next year with, "That’s the worst!" I’m sure many seniors dread this question. Taylor isn’t entire sure yet, but she has some incredible options to choose from, including a possible placement for Princeton in Africa—hopefully in South Africa. Otherwise, she’ll be looking for a job and exploring her grad school options. Taylor learned how to apply her creativity to any situation while working at the Writing Center—from her own writing to the process of tutoring others in their writing. She’ll miss her fellow tutors the most, and the friends she’s made as a tutor at the Writing Center.

James Jolles hopes to land a job while he applies to grad school in Geology. He’s interested specifically in Patrography, a type of rock study including geochemistry—“basically rocks and microscopes.” He wants to wind up anywhere that has “good rocks,” but it’ll most likely be the eastern seaboard. James’s fondest memory of working at the Writing Center was bonding with his fellow tutors both on and off shift. He will especially miss playing “the floor is lava,” which he asked me not to include in this article--sorry, James. 


Judith Stapleton won’t be leaving us quite yet--thank goodness! She’ll be staying on for a year working as the Writing Center’s much-needed secretary. She also plans to work part-time at a café or store off-campus while beginning to apply to grad school. Judith has learned how to read a paragraph in “about three seconds flat” during her time as a tutor, along with the sad fact that fluorescent lighting gives her headaches. Judith has wonderful memories of all of the tutors she has worked with over the years and looks forward to sticking around for just a little bit longer!
 

Tolly Taylor will be “living life and being happy” after he graduates. Maybe grad school will come eventually. Tolly appreciated our varied approach to the Writing Center philosophy, and he also gives a shout-out to our wonderful snacks. He really enjoyed the intellectual involvement of working at the Center, and, in particular, has learned how to give an effective and engaging PowerPoint presentation. He’s going to miss his fellow tutors and the “hilarious conversations” we tend to have during staff meetings--but he promised that he would miss me the most!


We wish all of our graduating tutors the best as they move on to new things. We will miss them sorely, but we know that we are sending an extraordinary group of individuals into the world!

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"Lawn Lettering"

Forming the "W", left to right: Judith Stapleton, Kevin Brown, Katie Delaney, Tolly Taylor

Forming the "C", top to bottom: Taylor Dunbar, James Jolles

  • Sydney Pierce