Learning on Equal Grounds

Utah State University welcomes students to its beautiful campus where they can achieve their potential in an environment where everyone is welcome and each is promised that their voice will be heard and valued. The “Diversity Statement” facilitates this by encouraging discourse in a “free and respectful exchange of ideas.” Certainly, the opportunity to collaborate with students, scholars, and instructors in such an environment would help each gain command of the English language and improve their writing skills. As a graduate student, graduate instructor, and Writing Center tutor, I looked forward to this opportunity from many angles. Navigating my campus experience in my varying roles has helped me discover that all here are stakeholders in the university experience; each contributes to the success or failure of the learning environment. My pedagogy and practice have been informed by dynamics encountered in the Writing Center and classroom, that have highlighted the importance of this as I have studied education theory. Writing Center theory has ultimately been most influential to me in facilitating a free and safe environment through mutual thoughtfulness that enables the education process for all