NMC Writing Center Director Sarah Wangler and staff members Ann Hosler, Lexi Minzey, and Alexandria Devol recently attended the International Writing Center Association (IWCA) Annual Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. While there, the team engaged with presenters and colleagues from centers far and wide. Below, Sarah offers a reflection on the conference experience and shares some observations that may influence the center’s work moving forward. Of course, Swoop tagged along on the trip. 

What was the name of the conference/PD opportunity you attended?

International Writing Center Association

When and where did the event take place?

Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, Oct. 15-18

Please share details from a memorable keynote speaker, conference session, or something else notable from the event:

In one session I attended, we learned about how several different colleges had implemented embedded tutor programs in various ways, and this gave me the opportunity to reflect on our current embedded tutor program with the ENG 99/108 Teaching Assistants. We are working on how to add embedded tutors to ENG 111/11 and it was incredibly helpful to hear how other institutions handle staffing, training, and assigning tutors to courses like that one.

How likely are you to recommend this opportunity to a colleague?

This was a great conference for writing center administrators and tutors.

Do you have any big takeaways that you’ll be applying to your pedagogy in the near future?

This conference allowed me to think about teaching and tutoring writing in the changing landscape with artificial intelligence becoming more and more accurate. One panel of student researchers that I attended talked about how the students themselves use AI in composing and it was informative and gave me some good ideas on how to encourage students to use AI as a supplement but not replacement for their writing through adding information about AI and how it could be used ethically to many of my assignments.