Building Bridges: A Collaboration between Salisbury University's Writing Center and the Stephen Decatur High School Writing Center

Abstract

This project seeks to understand how a partnership between the University Writing Center (UWC) at Salisbury University and the Seahawk Writing Center (SWC) at Stephen Decatur High School could provide benefits to both institutions and their respective communities at large. After examining existing models of such partnerships, I worked with staff from both centers to organize our own experimental event called an "unconference." This event kicked off said partnership, and IRB-approved surveys were used to collect data about the benefits that both the college and high school tutors gleaned from their collaborative conversations. The feedback, revealed in detail in this project, was overwhelmingly positive and provided future avenues for the UWC to support the SWC. It was also determined through the survey responses that the current pool of SWC tutors is generally inexperienced and lacking in confidence when it comes to tutoring writing, so much of the support provided to them will be to bolster these areas. Finally, I provide a detailed description of several potential models for future collaboration so that 1) this partnership has several avenues for continuation and 2) other writing centers may use this information for their own partnerships.