Scattered around the Hocka-halls are posters reminding students that following the honor code while writing papers is very demure and very mindful. The authors of these Tik-Tok reproductions? The Writing Center Interns.
Started six years ago by English Teacher Lisa Fisher, the Writing Center aims to help students with writing endeavors, while also encouraging them to embrace the writing process.
Within the school, Fisher, other teachers and trained students help writers across all divisions develop their writing skills.
“We started with just Upper School consultations,” Fisher said. “Then we piloted Middle School programs a couple years ago, and last year, we began helping the Lower School girls as well.”
For Middle and Upper Schoolers, interns and teachers offer 30-minute consultations for any and all writing assignments.
“One of my favorite parts about the Writing Center is when I help students reach their ‘aha’! moment,” senior Intern and Writing Center Outreach Director Alex Blue Baron said. “It’s rewarding to see students having breakthroughs during our consultations.”
The program helps students improve their writing, but it also gives the tutors a chance to hone their own techniques.
“We’re all constantly learning while we are at the center, including teachers,” Fisher said. “We don’t ever assume that we have all the answers, and we hope to inspire that mindset in others as well.”
Student tutors are on the schedule two hours each rotation and are available for drop-in questions as well. Instead of editing the papers for the students, they are trained to ask questions to help them develop their papers. This ensures that the student can replicate the process in their next writing assignment.
“We are very focused on building student confidence and helping people understand how to make their writing stronger,” Fisher said.
“We want them to feel like they’re able to tackle whatever writing assignment they have, no matter what it is and if they’ve done something like it before.”
Outside of Hockaday, the Writing Center also has a Social Impact program where upper school students tutor at Dallas ISD’s Foster Elementary. They go three times a week, twice during the day and once after school, though tutors are only required to go for one of these times per rotation. They teach students foundational concepts such as synonyms and antonyms.
“Helping kids with concepts such as these really sets them up for success later in life,” junior Social Impact tutor Mimi Davison said. The program helps students at Foster Elementary while giving tutors the opportunity to develop their own creativity.
“I created a book publishing program with the kids last year,” Davison said. “I loved being able to have the flexibility to create my own program and vision for how the students could learn literacy skills.”
