Today on the blog, we’re hosting a guest post by Maureen Dixon, an accomplished writer, editor, and writing coach. She joined WriterCoach Connection as a volunteer coach in 2010. Since then Maureen has served as a coach, site coordinator, trainer and board member for the nonprofit. She is now the Chair of the Board of Directors. FCP is proud to support nonprofits improving educational outcomes.
“It’s hard for me to write about myself,” 17-year old Aimee told me. “I used to like creative writing, but these essays are more difficult.” It was the first time I met Aimee. She was a senior at Richmond High School and part of the College is Real program with 60 other seniors. I was a volunteer with WriterCoach Connection, coaching Aimee in writing answers to the personal insight questions that accompanied her college application to the University of California campuses. Aimee and I started with her one paragraph answers to eight insight questions; our goal was to narrow that down to 250-word essays on four of the questions. Aimee was feeling some nerves as she approached her college essays.
“I used to like creative writing, but these essays are more difficult. I feel I have to show that I’m good enough to get into college; I have to sell myself in writing.”
As we talked, she explained how she had just completed a summer leadership program in Washington DC that inspired her and taught her different aspects of leadership. Aimee knew she wanted to become a leader of women in the future. We focused on that for her first personal essay.
I helped Aimee tease out the strong parts of her draft and expand on them. We talked more about what being a leader meant to her, and she added those things to her draft. Then we edited, tightening the language and cutting out less powerful parts of her story. We worked this way on all four of the required essays over several coaching sessions, held in the library at Richmond High. When she was finished, Aimee had four pieces of writing she felt reflected herself well and that she felt good about.
Two years later, Aimee is now a sophomore at Cal. She highly values the spot her admissions essays helped her achieve. “I was thrilled to get into my first-choice college,” she explains. “I’m receiving a high-quality education that far exceeded my expectations, and I’ve made meaningful connections and memories with fellow Bears.”
“I’m studying integrative biology. Next semester I’ll study molecular cell biology,” she continues. “I think I’ll major in one of those. As for my goals after college, I’m still discovering that part of myself.” Aimee is on her way to becoming a leader. “I think women can be leaders in any field. In STEM women are under-represented and I may get to represent women in that field. I also want to go back to my community and inspire other young women to get into college.”
College is Real helped Aimee and the 60 other Richmond High seniors with mentorship, inspiring visits from other college-age youth and some financial support. The nonprofit contracted with WriterCoach Connection to provide the individualized coaching in writing and critical thinking that the personal insight questions entailed.
The power of a WriterCoach volunteer in writing and editing has the ability to not simply improve a student’s application to colleges, but also to shape their long-term trajectory. Aimee told me that “having a coach really helped me! I may volunteer with WriterCoach Connection myself as one way to give back to my community. I can pass on the tips that you gave to me and that I still use: read your writing out loud to see how it flows, turn your personal insights into stories to keep the reader interested, and know that it’s okay to revise a few times to make the writing stronger. I have been doing those things ever since we did them together, and I know I will continue to do so throughout college as well as in grad school or for job applications.”
WriterCoach Connection is seeking more volunteers to work with students in select middle schools and high schools. This year we have more than 500 volunteer coaches working with students in Richmond, Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and Oakland, and we welcome more. The commitment is about two hours, twice a month throughout the school year. We provide training and a coordinator at each site who manages the program at the school and is the interface between the teachers and the volunteers. I invite you to discover how you can become a volunteer for WriterCoach Connection and make a difference in the lives of students like Aimee. Contact us at http://www.
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