The Writing Center: Welcoming Students in Need

The Writing Center is back at it again with another incredible year of help and hospitality towards kids in need of assistance with compositions. The Center provides essay and writing assignment help during lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays while also providing extra college essay assistance for seniors on Wednesdays. It’s a place where one can go to feel comfortable and get help from students and staff who are all certified to help. 

The Writing Center was founded and created three years ago by Dr. Gail Viechnicki with help from Mr. Robel Bing. Helping Dr. V and Mr. Bing around the Writing Center are the student tutors trained by Dr. V. Tutors range from 11th to 12th grade and have great charisma and writing skills. Dr. V has a deep love for the Writing Center as she had previously been in one when she was in high school. She later got a scholarship to teach in the writing center at her college and then went on to get her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago. Afterward, Dr. V joined MCPS. Dr. V states, “We’re gonna help you improve and we’ll be right beside you all the way.” 

A limitless number of tools and resources are available for use to anyone using the Writing Center. They provide resources from in-person help to online tools. Online, they provide students with google slides, videos, guides, and much more. In person, they can facilitate one-to-one help sessions with tutors and/or Dr. V and Mr. Bing. Whether you’re in-person or using online tools, the Center and its tutors can assist with any type of assignment. It could be an essay, a simple paper, or even a college essay. It doesn’t matter – the Center is there to assist. The tutors also earn SSL hours for their encouraging work throughout the year. Senior Jason Martin says the tutors are here to help make you feel comfortable. 

Martin states, “I think a lot of kids come in here or they’re a little uncomfortable coming in because it’s their first time and they’re asking…peers for help instead of…a teacher. So they might be a little shy, but I feel like they warm up pretty quick and we’re…nice and welcoming. So, I think we can form connections, especially if we see a student more than one time.”     

The center is especially busy this time of year with many seniors working on college essays. 

“College essays right now are really heavy,” says Dr. V. “So having a good, helpful environment may … [help] those ideas [flourish]. … Also some of these guys [are] writing their own college essays, and then get students to come in and they’re like, ‘Can you help me with my college essay?’ So they’re reading somebody else’s [essay, which is]…really good because then…you’re like, ‘Okay, we’re all in this together.’” 

For further information on the Writing Center, make sure to go to room A103 on Tuesdays and Thursdays or check out their website!