Pictured above, Monee, 5th year Human Services major with a Communication Studies minor.
Writing interventions have been shown to impact student learning and socio-emotional development (Bangert-Drowns, Hurley and Wilkinson, 2004; Chandler, 2002). Through the process of writing, students develop academic skills, but also explore their own self-awareness, and reflect on personal and social issues. 826 Boston’s Writers’ Room is a writing intervention in two locations in the Boston Public Schools. The program’s mission is to provide writing services to the entire school to foster the development of student writing. The program supports individual student work with dedicated Writers’ Room staff and Northeastern University tutors. This study will explore the role of Northeastern University tutors within the Writers’ Room model. Specifically, this research will examine the experience of being a tutor within the Writers’ Room, and explore if the tutoring role is associated with changes in college student’s academic or career aspirations and decisions. This research will use a mixed methods approach, combining survey data with in-depth interview data from Northeastern University Tutors with who have participated in service-learning with the 826 Writers’ Room. In collaboration with 826 Boston, and the Northeastern Center for Community Service, our research will recruit from all service-learning students for the past 4 years. The quantitative survey is organized into four major parts: participant demographics, history of community service, service with 826, and their perspectives on the value of community service as a mechanism of social change. The qualitative interview will explore personal narratives of Northeastern students as it pertains to their service with 826, using semi-structured questions. (credits to @studentsofcssh on instagram)
