Community Writing Center
People
Staff
Community Advisory Committee
Academic Advisory Committee
Writing Partners
Staff
Andrea Malouf: Director
Andrea is the Director of the SLCC Community Writing Center and Assistant Professor of English at Salt Lake Community College where she teaches writing and literature. For the last two decades, she's worked as a magazine journalist, an editor-in-chief of five publications, an information designer, a literary arts volunteer with many local organizations, and a mom. She writes fiction and nonfiction when time permits (usually between midnight and 2 a.m.).
Elisa Stone: Associate Director
Elisa is the Associate Director of the Community Writing Center and an Associate Professor of English at Salt Lake Community College, where she received the Utah Campus Compact’s Engaged Scholar Award as the College’s Service-Learning Faculty Mentor. She has volunteered alongside students at various non-profit organizations, and is a consultant to the State Office of Education in creating technical writing curriculum for Utah high schools. She adores animals, the ocean, and traveling.
Brandon Schembri: Writing Assistant—Youth Program Coordinator
The first thing you need to know about Brandon Schembri is that he is simply, undeniably, unanimously, and superfluously amazing. He was born beneath the California sun and grew to a relatively mature stature in the frozen tundra and wind-swept terrains of southeastern Idaho. His hands, hardly calloused, never penetrated the fertile surfaces of the vast green potato fields; nor his shapely biceps ever required to lift the heavy lead pipes that lay strewn across every acre farmland. When high school acquaintances were enlisted in droves to work the fields mining for the brown food, he was personally enraptured with the gems of literature: Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Emerson and Michael Crichton. An indelible mark was left by these literary lords on the young mind of this red haired lad, and it has always remained. After serving a two year mission to the deciduous flatlands of Wisconsin, he indulged himself in educational pursuits of the literary kind, first in Idaho, then to Utah and finally landing in the latter’s capital. He is now academically housed on the easterly hills of Salt Lake City, in the land of the Utes. He burst upon the Community Writing Center scene at the twilight of the Spring 2012 semester, and enjoys interacting with community members in coaching and workshop sessions. For enjoyment he tickles the ivory of his electric piano, summoning the music of Debussy, Elton John, and the hits of Broadway. He further relishes his insatiable charm and wit around the lady folk, and the occasional basketball game with the guys.
Shauna Edson: Writing Assistant—Youth Program Coordinator
Shauna is excited to collaborate with the community of writers at the SLCC Community Writing Center. After a long and steady stint as a massage therapist, and occasional bike taxi rider, Shauna decided to return to school to pursue her passion for writing and rhetoric while earning a BS degree at the University of Utah. In her spare time Shauna enjoys reading literary non fiction, sewing, and drinking tea. She also spends a significant amount of time haggling over prices of treasures found in second hand shops, throwing sticks for her dog, or goofing around on trails while traveling by foot, bike, or snowboard. Shauna enjoys exploring and learning about the world with her two boys.
Nkenna Onwuzuruoha: Writing Assistant - Volunteer Coordinator
Nkenna Onwuzuruoha (or better known as Kenna O.) is a Georgia girl exploring life out West after four years of college in the mid-west and a two year stint abroad teaching English in France and completing a Masters in England. Her writing for the past few years has been primarily academic sprinkled with abandoned blogs and coltish emails to close friends. As a former AmeriCorps VISTA, she bridged partnerships with local organizations that strengthened CWC’s civic endeavors. She uses her down time for walking, biking, hiking, rediscovering anaphora, tricolons, and all other rhetorical devices she loved but cannot remember from high school Latin, and summer festivals.
Faye Fischer: Writing Assistant - DiverseCity Writing Series Coordinator
Faye Fischer is dusting off her old ambitions to continue her BA in Linguistics/TESOL at the University of Utah. She hopes to continue on to graduate school and would love to teach Developmental Education and ESL courses in the near future. Faye speaks Spanish and has experience working with ESL writers. After a four year gig in corporate America she is glad to be back in the comfortable, open arms of academia and collaborative learning where she will never have to worry about her boss forgetting National Administrative Assistants’ day again. Aside from the business letters and memos that have haunted her dreams Faye has recently been reading voraciously and working on some creative non-fiction.
Megan Mullineaux: Writing Assistant - Development and Education Cordinator
After fourteen years of working in the culinary industry, Megan Mullineaux is thrilled to be writing something other than menus. Megan is currently pursuing degrees in Philosophy and Anthropology with a minor in linguistics at the University of Utah. She has great yet vague plans to continue on to graduate school. Megan is known to disappear on occasion for much-appreciated backpacking trips. She loves spending her time hiking, swimming, playing tennis, cycling, skiing, and typically only sits still in order to read, write or play her cello.
John Paul Brantly: Writing Assistant - Communications and Outreach Specialist
John Paul Brantly was born on National Pie Day which is also Einstein's birthday. This may explain why he is relatively fond of pie, among other things. He is a graphic designer, a profession which allows him to combine his love of creative doodling with his need to earn a living. He was recently married to Bekka, his best friend who is equally amazing. Paul loves cookies (it's an addiction really). He often craves the open road and a bicycle.
Ahmyah Smith - Vista
Ahmyah Smith is a thrill-seeking liberal, hailing from Cincinnati, OH (Who Dey, baby!!!). After graduating with a B. S. degree in Psychology and working in the trenches in Montgomery County as a Case Manager for severe mentally disable adults, decided to switch gears and become an AmeriCorps VISTA. While working as VISTA, Ahmyah wants to build partnerships with local community agencies that will uphold the CWC’s mission and help assist the local refugee population feel more comfortable with writing the English language. When she is not busy with trying to end poverty through the power of the pen; she enjoys taking dance classes, going on new adventures and traveling.
Sam Nggilari - Vista
Samuel Nggilari is just a guy aspiring to do great things in life. This picture exemplifies who Sam is as a person and an entity.
Community Advisory Committee
Our Community Advisory Committee is comprised of active community members and/or professional writers and editors who advise the CWC on innovative ways to achieve its mission of supporting, motivating and educating people of all abilities and educational backgrounds who want to use writing for practical needs, civic engagement and personal expression.
Shauna Bona is a founder and copresident of McKinnon-Mulherin, Inc., a company that provides writing and editing expertise to corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies. Although most of her time is spent working directly with clients (i.e., sales), she is also in charge of training the McKinnon-Mulherin team. When she isn't working, she focuses her time on her teen-age daughter Sophie and on volunteer work for the Girl Scouts and the Salt Lake City Rotary Club.
Louis Borgenicht is a pediatrician and writer. He is an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah and has taught courses in Literature and Medicine for the Division of Continuing Education at the University of Utah. His articles have appeared in Catalyst, Utah Holiday, City Weekly and the Salt Lake Tribune as well as professional medical journals. He is an inveterate writer of letters to the editor and is currently working on a book that will include a section of his unpublished political diatribes.
Stephen Goldsmith is Curator of The Temporary Museum of Permanent Change.
Anne Holman, Manager of King's English Bookshop, has been a reader since she was old enough to hold a book. It never occurred to her that a person could actually have a job where books and people could come together and one could actually earn money doing it. Will wonders never cease?
Donna Land-Maldonado is General Manager and radio host for KRCL.
Gail McCulloch is a playwright, instructor and librarian; she has an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Utah and was a professor of Theatre at Westminster College for nine years.
Dawn Marano is president and senior editor of Dawn Marano & Associates, a literary consulting and developmental editing firm. Previously she served as an editor at the University of Utah Press, where she published many nationally recognized authors of nonfiction. She teaches writing for the University of Utah's Lifelong Learning program and serves as chair of the advisory board for the Writers @ Work annual conference. Marano is a co-author of When We Say We're Home: A Quartet of Place and Memory, a work of literary nonfiction. Her poetry and prose have appeared in several publications and anthologies, and her work has been cited among Notable Essays in The Best American Essays. Her memoir Trusting the Edge won the Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition for Nonfiction Book in 2005 and the Publication Prize in 2006.
Robin Pratt, originally from California, has a background in psychology and business. Her articles and essays on topics including parenting, health, music, alumni perspectives, community and women's issues have been published in regional and national magazines, on public radio, and online; her first book was published in 2006. In addition to freelance writing, Robin has worked as a website writer and small nonprofit administrator. She currently lives and writes in Salt Lake City with her husband and their two sons.
Ken Verdoia is the extremely rare journalist who has worked in newspaper, magazine, radio, commercial television and public television on the local, regional and national level, Ken presently provides overall direction of program production for KUED-TV in Salt Lake City. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. Ken is the recipient of seventeen Emmy Awards and has been twice honored for producing the best television news documentary in America. He is a fellow of the American Political Science Association, a Lifetime Achievement honoree from the National Academy of Television Arts and Science, and author and media consultant to Fortune 500, federal government and professional sports (NBA, MLB, NFL) clients.
Academic Advisory Committee
Our Academic Advisory Committee is comprised of educators from local higher education institutions and K-12 schools/districts who advise the CWC on innovative pedagogical approaches, facilitate opportunities for research and scholarship and explore avenues for student involvement in and through the CWC.
Clint Gardner (Chair) is the Coordinator of the Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) Student Writing Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. He currently serves as Past President of the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA), having completed hist two-year term as President in 2007. His writing center research and development include the work of peer writing consultants (tutors) in a community college writing center and the use of online resources to bring writing center services who cannot attend the Student Writing Center in person. One the most important aspects of his writing center work is to support and offer feedback to the student writers who come to the SLCC Student Writing Center, as well as to the SLCC Students who work as peer writing consultants in the Center. Clint teaches college composition and literature with a particular interest in discourse studies and genre theory. His literary interest include Shakespeare and British Modernists.
Geoffrey Brugger, SLCC School of Arts and Communications
Larry Christensen, SLCC Psychology Department
Ron Christiansen, SLCC English Department
Daniel Emery, University of Utah Writing Program
John Fritz, SLCC Department of History and Anthropology
Dean Huber, SLCC ESL Department
Tom Huckin, University of Utah Writing Program
Jay Jordan, University of Utah Writing Program
Lynn Kilpatrick, SLCC English Department
Chris LeCluyse is an assistant professor of English and writing center director at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. After studying English and vocal performance at Oberlin College, he received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, where he specialized in the history of the English language and linguistics. In graduate school Chris became involved in writing center administration and later filled interim positions at UT and Southwestern University before coming to Westminster. His research looks at writing center practice through the lenses of ancient rhetoric and medieval literacy. He is also a professional singer of choral and early music, performing with Conspirare (Austin), Magnificat (San Francisco), and a variety of ensembles in Salt Lake.
Maureen Mathison, University of Utah Writing Program
Lois Oestreich, SLCC Pre-Teacher Education
Jennifer Ritter, SLCC English Department
Cheryl Shurtleff, SLCC Skills Center, ESL
Enrique Velasquez, SLCC Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Betsy Ward is the Director of the Thayne Center for Service & Learning, which coordinates civic participation, service-learning, and volunteerism efforts at Salt Lake Community College. Her background is in community outreach, including experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Poland and a VISTA volunteer in rural Washington state. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in American Studies from Utah State University.
Sundy Watanabe, University of Utah Writing Center
Writing Partners
Writing Partners are non-profit organizations, government agencies, businesses, and educational institutions that work with the CWC to address their writing needs. This service can be used to empower clients, staff, and volunteers through workshops and individual consulting. Topics range from grant and business writing to creative writing and public service announcements. To inquire about the Writing Partners program please contact Andrea Malouf at (801) 957-2192 or submit our inquiry form.
Featured Partner:
Salt Lake City Public Library
With the Salt Lake City Public Library downtown and five branches located throughout the city, there's bound to be a city library close to where you live or work. And now the SLCC Community Writing Center is partnering with the Salt Lake City Public Library for these three exciting new programs!Salt Lake Teens Write
Imagine yourself as a junior in high school, not sure of your future, (college? career?), but one thing you do know is that you like to write. Now imagine yourself as a person with a career, who uses writing on a daily basis. Bring these two people together and you’ve got a new community writing program being offered by the SLCC Community Writing Center and the Salt Lake City Public Library.
Starting in Fall 2010, under-served teens (ages 16-17) will partner with adults who use writing in their careers in mentoring relationships for nine months. Meeting weekly, these writing teams will work together to develop strong writing skills and abilities in all types of writing: creative, professional and academic.
If you are interested in participating either as a mentor or a mentee please visit the Salt Lake Teens Write page.Writing for Change
Does change in democracy require civic dialogue? If so, where is it and who gets to talk? Or write? Join the SLCC Community Writing Center as we learn the techniques of civic writing, such as Letters to Editors and Public Officials. Come with a concern; stay to write a letter with the help of SLCC Community Writing Center writing coaches.
Beginning in January 2010, the SLCC Community Writing Center launches three new areas of programming within our new Writing for Change initiative: the Utah Community Literacy and Writing Consortium (UCLAWC), Writing for Change Events with the Salt Lake City Public Library and a Community Survey on Writing and Change. Please explore all of these programs, and find out how YOU can make a change with writing!
For more information, visit our Writing for Change page
One City Westside Stories
Salt Lake City may be the biggest small town in the west, but it consists of many smaller diverse communities. In partnership with the Salt Lake City Public Library, the SLCC Community Writing Center presents One City: Westside Stories. This program invites community members living on the Westside to participate in mutual dialogue about their community. High school students and senior citizens will interview each other about their experiences living in this vibrant community.
The interview teams will write stories after the interviews. Podcasts and writing will be shared on-line to create a portrait of the Westside.
High School teachers, senior citizens, and community volunteers are encouraged to be involved.
West High School Family Resource Center
West High School, established in 1890, is located at 241 North 300 West in Salt Lake City. The West High School Family Resource Center (FRC) provides educational resources and information about jobs, housing, legal aid and domestic violence to the extended West High School student and parent population. It also serves as a point of access for the West High population regarding clothing and food resources and dentistry and family support voucher programs.
The SLCC Community Writing Center (CWC) partnered with the West High FRC in September 2011 to offer CWC programs to the students and parents at West High. CWC writing coaches offer free after-school weekly writing coaching sessions to West students. The coaching sessions, conducted on-site at West High, focus on students’ academic assignments and preparing college application essays, personal statements, and scholarship essays. The CWC, in collaboration with the West FRC, has also conducted full writing workshops at West High that provide detailed information for students and parents regarding the process of writing college application and scholarship essays.
Venture Course
The Venture Course in the Humanities provides adults facing economic barriers with a chance to start college. Modeled on the Clemente Course in the HumanitiesSM, created by educator and journalist Earl Shorris in 1995 and now an international movement, Venture is a year-long, introductory humanities course taught by university and college faculty. In Utah, the course is run in Salt Lake, Ogden, and Cedar City and includes sections in literature, American history, art history, philosophy, and writing/critical thinking. Successful students of Venture in Salt Lake City receive credits transferable to Westminster College.
Venture Course meets twice a week at Horizonte Instruction and Training Center. Students are given a writing assignment each class and write essays throughout the semester. In partnership with the Utah Humanities Council, 2011 marked the first year of the SLCC Writing Center offering writing coaching to Venture students once a week before class at Horizonte.
Salt Lake County Jail System
Since the introduction of Salt Lake County’s Life Skills program, 49 groups of between 25 and 30 participants have graduated. The program, which emphasizes a wide range of skills, from personal finance to parenting, has been deemed a success on both a local and national level. Central to the program is the “Heroes” program, which asks participants to critically analyze their legacy and asks an important question: would you be proud for your children to call you their hero? Often, the answers to this question are mixed, and for the majority of the program, participants will grapple with their answers, both verbally and through writing. In collaboration with the Salt Lake County Jail system, the Community Writing Center facilitates a two part writing process workshop, which has since become a consistent part of the larger Life Skills curriculum. CWC facilitators guide participants through the writing process, allowing writers to explore planning, brainstorming, drafting and revision through their own writing. The participant writers gain both an opportunity to reflect on their assigned questions, and writing skills to apply to a variety of scenarios once they are released.
Additionally, the Salt Lake Community College Community Writing Center partners with the Salt Lake County Metro Jail in order to provide a rotating series of creative writing workshops to jail’s female inmates. Every 3 weeks, CWC facilitators recruit interested women for two part workshops, which in the past have focused on creative non-fiction, poetry, and fiction. During these workshops, writers are introduced to new formats and genres, given the chance to write freely and creatively, and also receive feedback from facilitators and fellow writers. Often, the women continue their work after the workshops have ended, and either share their new material and later workshops or at the CWC upon release.
Currently, the Salt Lake County Jail system is one of the CWC’s largest partnerships; to date, more than 200 writers have participated in the CWC’s jail programming since August 2011.
Past Featured Partners:
KUER and This I Believe
In the 1940s and 50s, America was a nation beset by fears of communism, atomic war, and the loss of values. It was in this political and social upheaval that Senator Joseph McCarthy rose to power. Capitalizing upon the fears of Americans to drive his political ambitions, McCarthy declared that hundreds of card-carrying communists had infiltrated the United States government. Although he was censured by the senate for conduct unbecoming his position, Joseph McCarthy led one of the most repressive times in American history.
In the 1950s, Edward R. Murrow created and hosted a radio program known as This I Believe. Although Murrow said that the purpose of the program was “to point to the common meeting grounds of beliefs, which is the essence of brotherhood and the floor of our civilization,” a subtler drive behind the program was to respond to the “communist witch-hunt” taking place in America. Series Producer Dan Gediman said about the essays heard: “We hear a country moving toward more equality among the races and between genders. We hear parents writing essays that are letters to their newborn children expressing the hopes and dreams they have for them. And we hear the stories of faith that guide people in their daily experiences."
The times in which we live differ from those of McCarthy and Murrow, but just as the purpose behind the This I Believe program was to encourage Americans to search within themselves to discover what they truly believed, National Public Radio (NPR) has revived this program to continue Americans’ search for personal belief. Here at the CWC, we have partnered with KUER to provide radio essay workshops and to encourage all members of our community to submit their own statement of belief. All submitted essays will be featured on the CWC website, and KUER will select a few to be read on air. If you would like to submit to our This I Believe project, we encourage you to:
1. Please limit your essay to fewer than 500 words.
2. Describe an event that shaped your beliefs or a person who inspired them.
3. Avoid sermons and editorials—no soapbox declamations, please!
4. Read more of This I Believe's essay-writing tips.
Learn More About:
- McCarthyism
- NPR's This I Believe series
Chapman Library
In 1974, inspired by mythological tales and the writing of contemporary fantasy authors, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created a system to build stories around the miniature-figurine wargame, Chainmail. This system developed into the first modern roleplaying game, known today as Dungeons and Dragons or D&D. The game provides individuals the chance to create a story around personalized characters in a shared narrative. Many narratives are started by a pre-written adventure hook, but each story is open enough to allow the characters to take on a life of their own.
The adventures of characters such as these have been developed through the imagination of the players at Chapman Branch Library in Salt Lake City. Each week, librarian Sean Carrico assists a group of local teens in the development of an ongoing tale. Recently, however, the pace has slightly changed—the players, interested in creating their own little corner of the D&D world, have given up one game night a month to start the building process.
Sean and the Community Writing Center’s Jeremy Remy provide feedback and time for these young writers to inscribe their ideas. Moreover, they assist in giving the tools needed to help write such an epic: discussing the invention ideas, working out character hooks and motives, developing and structuring plot, revision techniques, game design, and editing skills.
The writers themselves were already familiar with a variety of character creation tools and the plot-driven storytelling necessary to play Dungeons and Dragons. Their experience as players has helped make them quick to pick up on the methods used to create a story.
“Every writer,” Jeremy claims, “should take the opportunity to play a roleplaying game. The skills these games can offer are invaluable.”
Creation of the story will be an ongoing experience for the teens this year. Upon completion, they will assist in designing a printed copy of their work to make available to patrons of the library. They will also be submitting their adventure to Wizards of the Coast, publishers of the Dungeons and Dragons game, with the hope of official publication.
Additional Writing Partners
Since opening, the Community Writing Center has partnered with a variety of organizations: