If you walked through Wallenberg Hall on a Tuesday or Thursday morning in August, you might have stumbled on something unexpected: a PWR instructor leading a group of excited incoming freshman through an elevator pitch activity or giving them guidance on developing an effective op-ed. In short, what you might have seen would have been one of the most recent of PWR's collaborations -- our new partnership with the Leland Scholars Program, through which PWR offered 4 sections of a PWR 6 class, "Academic Writing and Argument" this summer.
The Leland Scholars Program, which was originally proposed in 2008 and brought to fruition in 2011, gives a select cohort of incoming freshmen who might be the first in their family to attend college the fully-funded opportunity to transition into their undergraduate career at Stanford. LSP is both a residential and curricular program, involving a two-unit chemistry based science, a 1-unit writing course, and a schedule packed full of co-curricular activities. The Leland Scholars (as they're called) continue their affiliation with the program through a one-unit course follow-up in autumn and winter quarters as well as additional advising and workshops intended to sustain the community and reinforce the skills developed throughout the summer.
The writing component of the course was a new addition to the program in 2016 and was led by PWR instructors Russ Carpenter, Carolyn Ross, Ruth Starkman, and Jennifer Johnson. PWR's participation in LSP involved both a close collaboration with the Chemistry faculty, Jennifer Schwartz Poehlmann and Charlie Cox (who have been involved in LSP since its earliest stages) and LSP Director, Lourdes Andrades, as well as a curricular development stage in the Spring. During this process, the PWR instructors worked hard to develop a consistent curriculum for the PWR courses that would accomplish specific learning goals centered on writing, rhetoric, and research, while at the same time would complement students' experience in their Chemistry class.
This year’s Leland Scholar's summer program met from August 6th to September 3rd. Through bi-weekly sessions, students learned rhetorical strategies to effectively communicate their research to a variety of audiences and developed science-related research projects on topics as varied as access to clean water in developing countries, measures for combating the Zika virus, and Hyperloop high-speed transportation alternatives. As a culmination of their research, students developed an op-ed on the topic and presented their arguments in a poster presentation at the d.school Atrium on Thursday, September 1st.
When asked about what she learned from her writing class, incoming freshman Emily Uresti said, “It had a lot to do with helping us figure out academic writing…we learned about the rhetorical triangle and how different writing styles can convey different messages.”
Another cohort participant, Artenisa Kulla, mentioned the value of the peer review process that is a consistent feature of PWR courses. She said, “it helps to have fresh eyes read your paper because sometimes you’ll read it so many times that you’re reading it as how you think it should be or as what it should express and somebody else won’t know what you’re talking about,” a thought to which Uresti added, “I had never done peer reviews in academic writing, and it really helped me find my arguments.” Both participants felt that their writing instruction in LSP will serve them well as they enter the class of 2020 in September.
“I feel like I have much to improve,” Kulla said, “and when I take an actual PWR class I think this experience will have helped.”
