MARIAN E. WRIGHT WRITING CENTER

Serving students and faculty since 1971

When deciding what to write about in this blog post, I experienced a case of writers block. Collaboration quickly became the remedy to my problem. After collaborating with colleagues, I had my answer: collaboration as it relates to education, knowledge, professional success, and making connections. During my time in academia, I have made connections with many great peers, colleagues, and mentors. When I first began my college experience, I would come to school, work and study on my own, and go home to do my homework. I would go back the next day and repeat the process. After going to the writing center for help revising a paper I realized that, I was not alone. I quickly learned that on campus we are all a big team. I was so excited to come to school to test my abilities and expand my mind. I was even more excited when I experienced so much diverse and interesting knowledge just by simply striking a conversation with the people around me. Therefore, I became a writing tutor. I realized that I was not just here to get an A in my class, get a degree, and get a job. I realized that I had entered a completely new world and there was much to learn from it. When I am isolated, I feel caught up in the fast-paced life of jumping from one class to the next with the narrow-minded view of a grade as a final project. Collaborating with others has helped me put the true nature of my goals here into perspective: expanding my mind via collaboration. I am now the Professional Development Mentor in the Marian E. Wright writing center and I want to be someone that others can collaborate with and share knowledge.