The Writing Center: A Paper's Best Friend
In a tiny cubby hole of a room just to the side of the auditorium, sits a paper’s best friend. The Writing Center, created in April 2004, is designed to strengthen the work of students at Franklin College and thus far, half of the students have used the center this year. The center, run by Christina Bell, is there to do more than help with papers, giving support in many ways while continuously moving forward with new projects.
Christina Bell has solid roots at Franklin College. While her father attended in the 70’s, he is also a member of the Board of Trustees. She herself attended Franklin immediately after graduating high school early at age 16 and stayed for one year. She then attended Emery College in Atlanta for four years majoring in English with a minor in Italian. For three of those years, she worked at Emery’s writing center. After attending Emery, she worked as a curator and art consultant, but quit with hopes to go to graduate school and become the director of a writing center. That is when a random trip to visit friends in Switzerland in October 2003 turned into a job offer at Franklin College.
Bell considers the writing center, “A hallmark of a good liberal arts college,” and sees an average of 5 appointments a day. The center is there to help both professors and students by maintaining high standards by teaching proper research methods and writing skills. It also does a lot more. As Bell explains, “Generally our center provides students with all kinds of academic support.” Such support ranges from working with advisors to help with course selection and the choice of a major. Students can also find help with putting together portfolios, making proper resumes, writing graduate school applications, personal mentoring, and much more.
Next semester the center will be moving over to the LDV campus and with it the center is taking on many improvements. Next semester Bell hopes that she can train some student tutors to help out their fellow peers. It is an internship that she believes can teach a student how to be a professional editor. In addition to the prospect of more help, the move will provide the center with a much larger space. The center can now be a place where students sit on couches, eat snacks, and help each other through the writing process. The Writing Center , tucked away in a little room for now, is continuously improving itself and your papers.