Senior Profiles

 As springtime (and graduation) approaches, lets take a look at a few of our soon to be Coe Writing Center alumni and some of their future plans: 

Valerie Plesha

    Valerie is in her final semester here at Coe, preparing to graduate and excited for what her future holds.  During her time here she worked towards a grand total of 3 majors including chemistry, biology, and neuroscience. Her goal for the upcoming years is to attend a graduate program in one of her areas of study. This winter she worked to submit 12 graduate school applications, and has an offer at North Carolina State University for chemistry which she will be visiting in just a few weeks. How exciting! Besides that she has spent a portion of her spring semester traveling to interviews in places such as Reno, Nevada and Cincinnati. Although Valerie has not heard a final decision for her top school in Buffalo, it seems that she will have plenty of options and a very bright future coming out of Coe. 

    Of course, Valerie credits some of her success in the real world to her work here at the writing center. She claimed it definitely stood out on her resume and put her one step ahead in the science field. She felt it told her interviewers that she had quality writing skills that may be useful for writing grants and communicating, and she often brought up her work at the Catherine McAuley Center she did for Topics in her essays and interviews since it shows her character and provides evidence of teaching abilities. Valerie is considering becoming a professor after grad school, so her work teaching at the Catherine McAuley Center will be a great resume builder on top of the great experience she had. 

    Valerie's advice to current and future consultants was to be prepared to work the shifts you mark as available, don't expect the shifts you want, and never be afraid to ask for permanent shift changes- especially if you have an awkward break in your shift. Her favorite thing in the writing center is Abe Lincoln because the googly eyes are both funny and judging- better watch out... 

Izzy Craig

    Izzy is a senior with a major in history and a political science minor.  So far Izzy has applied to work at the national park service or as a history education specialist for the state of Iowa. Her main goal is to find work in public history. Public history is making history accessible and teaching to the general public. Izzy describes public history work as a way of storytelling, something that she really enjoys. Another career path Izzy finds interesting is being a cemetery historian: someone who preserves the stories of the recently buried and do genealogy work. 

    Izzy has used her work in the writing center as a major resume builder on both general and career specific levels. A state history publication is required for some of the jobs Izzy has taken an interest in and of course the writing center is connected to loads of publications. She has proved that she can work formally with all people including international workers which is a major factor in public history work. On the more general side, Izzy feels that working as a consultant and having conversations with writers allowed her practice public speaking and important formal conversation skills that are very useful in the workforce. 

    Her advice to other consultants was to embrace coming to work in the writing center and helping writers improve themselves and their projects. She urges us all to buy into the idea of helping writers to the best of our abilities and making our work about more than just any work study position. 

    The wavy lamp took the #1 spot in Izzy's list of favorite things in the writing center. She has a strong emotional connection to the wavy lamp and always feels bad for it because of the constant abuse it takes being pushed up against the wall. Moral of the story, treat the wavy lamp nicely and help it out whenever it's shade is a little crooked. 

Emma Graczyk

    Emma is finishing up her elementary education degree with student teaching this semester, and excited for the job search. Emma is hoping to become a reading specialist in a low income school district and really make an impact in the lives of the children she teaches. 

    As Emma pursues her dream of helping children by teaching, she believed the writing center has set her up for countless opportunities because of all the skills consultants practice and perfect. She described her growth as a person and teacher from her work in the writing center as improving her general people skills as well as some teaching specific strategies. She has perfected her craft by slowing down her teaching/conferences when necessary, and posing the writers/students with specific questions that promote thinking and detail orientation. Emma advises current and future consultants to get to know the people you work with and take risks to introduce yourself to people. She has met some people who are now very important to her this way, and she values all the things they have taught her and the support they provide. Her final words of wisdom were "always bring coffee to your shift." Noted. 

    Attention everyone: Emma's favorite thing in the writing center has been stolen. Karla the puppet used to sit and greet students entering the writing center, but mysteriously disappeared one day. Emma loved Karla the puppet because of its odd but comforting and familiar nature. 

Megan Norris

    Megan is really doing it all at Coe with majors in biology and environmental science as well as minors in chemistry and Spanish. Although she is still deciding between research and managing people, she knows that her ultimate goal is to do environmental management work. While doing this work Megan wants to participate in community outreach efforts in an attempt to educate the general public on how to make the world better.

    The writing center has helped her achieve her career and academic goals by improving her communication skills and giving her the opportunity to work with people from so many varying disciplines and perspectives. Along with this, Megan urges current and future consultants to consider it a privilege to work with writers and get insight as to how they think and take on the writing process. She suggested we all have fun with it and learn from everyone we work with. 

    The French vanilla coffee creamer powder was Megan's favorite thing in the writing center. She claims to make the trip to the writing center quite often just for this creamer (I think she just can't get enough of the writing center), and that it is her favorite creamer. Anyways, if you like creamer you'll have to check it out- just make sure to leave some for Megan.