The establishment of a new Writing Center, as well as an accompanying English elective course, will provide English peer-tutoring and advanced writing skills to students beginning in the spring of 2017.

“It was an idea that was kicked around for a while,” Principal Tom Mead said. “It took the initiative and the drive of these two English teachers to really get it going.”

In correspondence with Worcester State University, student tutors will be designing and running a Writing Center in the library for one-on-one tutoring with the help of English teachers Seth Czarnecki and Sara Stein. The pair hope to guide the students into taking initiative for the creation of the center.

“In terms of design, we want to really include the writing tutors in the design process,” Czarnecki said. “I have an idea for what I would love for a writing center for myself, but it’s really not about Ms. Stein, or me, or what I or the administration wants it to look like, it needs to be a space that the students create and cultivate for themselves in the image that they would feel comfortable working there.”

“It may be rather modest, but it’ll be there- I’m convinced of that,” Mead said. “It will occupy some space in the library. In time, we may be able to invest more and more into [the writing center] to make it very unique and, I would hope, a combination of function and aesthetic.”

The corresponding English elective course, Advanced Writing Seminar, will be available to the freshmen, sophomores, and juniors of this upcoming year. Enrollment in the elective is a necessary requirement for becoming a Writing Center peer tutor.

“We really want our first cohort of students to run this like a business,” Czarnecki said. “Not only will they be trained on how to be a writing tutor, but they will take part in the design plans, name, logo, slogan, and promote and market the Writing Center. There’s a business end to the whole writing-tutor-process that I think is really exciting and will excite students as well.”

Teachers have recommended tutors for the Writing Center, but any students who are interested are welcome to become a tutor.

“The students who were recommended by the faculty are essentially our first wave of recruits,” Czarnecki said. “That’s not to say that they’re the only ones who can take the tutoring class. We really hope that once word gets out about the Writing Center and what we’re trying to do, that more students will say ‘Now, that’s something that sounds cool to me,’ and would want to become a part of the process of creating this writing center.”