While the plans for reopening the Writing Center, a student-led and faculty supported tutoring service on campus, are still underway, English teacher Dr. Stephanie Kucsera was able to provide information on what the Writing Center’s reopening could look like and more.

The Writing Center, in past years located in a small room on the second floor of Loretto, encourages excellence while also connecting older and younger students.

Older students fill sessions during the school day in which younger students can come in and ask for help or advice on any essay assignment they have, from any English class. Aspiring tutors, all of whom must be seniors taking either an AP, IB or ACP English class, must apply and receive training in order to be able to help.

Kucsera said, “Tutoring sessions are collaborative in nature, with tutors advising clients and taking questions, but clients must do their own writing and make their own revisions.” Kucsera said this procedure is in place in order to make sure students are learning new strategies and ways of writing rather than simply having their paper rewritten or corrected.

The small second-floor room in which many papers have been revised, essay advice has been given, and grades have been boosted, is not coronavirus safe. With so many tutors and students, socially distancing has not been a viable option, and so the Writing Center has not been able to operate as of yet, but there are plans for its future.

While nothing is final, this will likely take place online, with tutors and the tutored alike being on Zoom. Students will have to make appointments with tutors during the tutor’s available resource periods, with the hopeful reopening date being Sept. 21.