1. The UCWbL
  2. Our Programs
  3. Outreach

Outreach

Outreach organizes events and initiatives that support and celebrate writers and tutors both at DePaul and in communities beyond.

We do outreach to the DePaul University community, working to bring awareness of and appreciation for peer tutoring, writing, reading, thinking—and the freedom to engage in these pursuits.

We also reach out to writers outside of DePaul—connecting with a variety of social service agencies and supporting students at various Chicago Public Schools.

JEN
FINSTROM
Outreach
Coordinator
jfinstro
@depaul.edu

Outreach Mission Statement

Outreach serves the University and beyond by honoring, supporting, and promoting writing and writers. Towards those ends, we organize UCWbL promotional events, writing workshops, outposts, conferences, the DePaul Peer Tutor and Mentor Summit, and other writing-centered gatherings that encourage, support, and celebrate the work of writers. We advance the UCWbL’s mission to “develop better writers along with better writing” by sharing the experience and resources of the UCWbL with students, staff, faculty, alumni and departments and offices at DePaul, as well as external community organizations.

Outreach works collaboratively with communities to assess and provide the resources needed to advocate for their diverse missions. Our partners are our colleagues and our relationships are mutually beneficial collaborations among equals. Everything we learn from these collaborations contributes to our reflection and revision for growth as writing ambassadors. Integral to our outreach knowledge-building are our professional and scholarly activities, which enable us to contribute to and learn from the larger conversations around outreach theories and best practices. Our outreach is service that puts into practice DePaul’s commitment to Vincentian personalism and service to others.

Peer Tutor & Mentor Summit

DePaul University’s Peer Tutor and Mentor Summit is an annual networking and community-building conference event for peer undergraduate and graduate student tutors, mentors, advisors and counselors, and their directors and supervisors, faculty, and professional staff, from all DePaul academic, professional, disciplined-based, cross-curricular, and student affairs offices, departments, and programs. The Summit brings together peer tutors and mentors from every program at DePaul. DePaul is the only university in the nation that recognizes, honors, and supports its peer tutors and mentors in this way.

Workshop in Progress

The Summit is collaborative in every way

Each Summit is organized under a theme chosen by peer tutors and mentors. Peer tutors, mentors , and program directors from across the university deliver theme-based Round Robin conference mini-presentations exploring important topics, questions, and practices, and engage in networking, knowledge-sharing, and community-building. Our keynote speakers have included university leaders invested in sharing their experiences with impactful tutor and mentor relationships. The connections and alliances that are forged during this truly distinctive and significant conference have made the Summit one of the most popular and important events for peer tutors and mentors throughout DePaul.

The Peer Tutor and Mentor Summit planning committee

Events & Programs

The mission and spirit of Outreach is embodied in our involvement and participation in varied events, programs, celebrations, and activities. To inform and support our work with scholarship, Outreach also participates in academic conferences and publications.

Outreach Events and Celebrations

Collaborative Programs and Advocacy

Academic Conferences

In addition to our regularly scheduled activities, Outreach also hosts booths at information fairs, orientations, and events, inviting writers to connect with the UCWbL.

If you would like to have Outreach host an informational table at your next event, please contact us.

Resources & Scholarship

Reading, writing, and professional conversation about outreach enables us to reflect, learn from the work of others, connect with other writing center communities, and contribute to the larger conversations about theory, advocacy, and best practices. The following resources consist of selected scholarly readings that inform our practices, our conference presentations, and our published works.

Selected Outreach Scholarship

Anzaldua, G. (1987/1999). Borderlands/La Frontera: The new Mestiza. (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute.

Ashley, H. (2012). The idea of a literacy dula. In Restaino, J. and Cella, L. (Eds.). Unsustainable: Re-imagining Community Literacy, Public Writing, Service-Learning, and the University. Cultural Studies/Pedagogy/Activism. Lexington Books/Rowman and Littlefield.

Bartholomae, D. (1986). Inventing the university. In Rose, M. (Ed.), When a writer can't write: research on writer's block and other writing problems. (pp. 134—166). New York: Guilford.

Berlin, J. (1988). Rhetoric & ideology in the writing class. College English, 50(5), 477—494.

Bruffee, K. (1984, November). Collaborative learning and the conversation of mankind. College English, 46(7), 635—652.

Carino, P. (1992) What do we talk about when we talk about our metaphors: A cultural critique of clinic, lab, and center." Writing Center Journal, 13(1), 31—43.

Carnoy, M. (1974). Education as cultural imperialism. New York: David McCay.

Clark, I. L. and Healy, D. (1996). Are writing centers ethical? Writing Program Administration, 20(1/2), 32-48.

Cronon, W. (1998). "Only connect": The goals of a liberal education. The American Scholar, 67(4), 73—80.

Coughlin, E., Finstrom, J., Kerper, E., Lyon, K., & Sastri, S. (2012, Fall). Outreach and third space. East Central Writing Centers Association.

Deciding on structure: Affinity group or intergroup work. (2012). Intergroup resources.

Ethical issues in community (Section 5). (2014). Community Tool Box.

Gee, J. P. (1989). What is literacy? Journal of Education, 171(1), 18—25.

Gillespie, P., Gillam, A., Brown, L. F., Stay, B. (Eds.). (2002). Writing Center Research: Extending the Conversation. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Goldblatt, E. (2005). Alinsky's reveille: A community-organizing model for neighborhood-based literacy projects. College English, 67(3), 274—295.

Goleman, D. (2015, April 7). How to be emotionally intelligent. New York Times.

Hemmeter, T. (1992). The "smack of difference": The language of writing center discourse. Writing Center Journal, 11(1), 35-48.

Hughes, B., Gillespie, P., and Kail, H. (2010). What they take with them: Findings from the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project. Writing Center Journal 30(2), 12—46.

Kail, H. (2002). Review of writing center research: Extending the conversation. College Composition and Communication, 54(2), 315-318.

Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity. (A. Lingis, Trans.). Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

Licona, A. C. (2005). (B)orderlands' rhetorics and representations: The transformative potential of feminist third-space scholarship and zines. NWSA Journal, 17(2), 104—129.

Mauk, J. (2003, March). "Location, location, location: The "real" (e)states of being, writing, and thinking in composition. College English, 65(4), 368—88.

Moje, E. B. et al. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(1), (2004), 38-71.

Ncube, L. B., and Wasburn, M. H. (2006). Strategic collaboration for ethical leadership: A mentoring framework for business and organizational decision making. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 13(1), 77—92. Web.

Petit, A. (1997). The writing center as "purified space": Competing discourses and the dangers of definition. Writing Center Journal, 17(2), 111—122.

Reynolds, N. (1998). Composition's imagined geographies: The politics of space in the frontier, city, and cyberspace. College Composition and Communication, 50.1, 2—35.

Routledge, P. (1996). The Third Space as Critical Engagement. Antipode. 28(4), 399—419.

Wilson, N. E. (2011). The writing center as bodega: Making a third space in academia for global Englishes and alternative discourses. University of Texas at San Antonio.

Looking to Publish?

Check out the Community Literacy Journal!

Writing Group

Our Collaboration Partners

Outreach collaborates with a diverse network of intra campus partnerships and local service organizations. Below is a directory of our communities in collaboration.

On the Money Interns

DePaul Peer Tutor and Mentor Summit Committee Partners

DePaul Collaborating Departments & Offices

DePaul Community Collaborations

Past DePaul Partnerships and Collaborating Departments & Offices

Communities and Collaborations Beyond DePaul—Present

Communities and Collaborations Beyond DePaul—Past

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