Writing Tutors

Hi, I’m Hudson! I’m a second year from Hoboken, New Jersey and I thrive on the combined noises of city and woods. In the city I can be found making up stories about people on the subway, sitting on the Alice in Wonderland sculpture in the park, and walking really fast while I bob and weave through crowds of lost people for sport. 

In the woods I will probably be sitting somewhere listening to the birds talking, or covered in dirt exploring off the side of a trail. 

I’ve loved to write since before I had the dexterity to put pen to paper. Being homeschooled, I learned my voice intimately before I was taught the rules. Now, I’m working on learning the rules so I can break them with purpose. 

At COA I’ve taken..

3D Studio: Introduction to Three-Dimensional Art and Design (Kristy Summers)

Journeys: Writing for Voyagers, Trekkers and Wanderers (Kathrine Turok)

10x Dramatic Writing Studio (Andrea Lepcio)

History of Filmmaking II (Colin Capers)

Native American Literature (Karen Waldron)

Geology of National Parks (Scott Braddock)

Sex, Gender, Identity and Power (Heather Lakey)

Philosophy of Science: Reason, Truth and Reality (Franklin Jacoby)

…and I am currently taking

Spanish Immersive Beginnings II (Karla Peña)

Movement Training Basics (Jodi Baker)

Intersectional Voicing: Modern US Women Novelists (Karen Waldron)

I’m excited to work with you on any project (particularly fiction, poetry, and most things unscientific) as well as help you in your own rule breaking pursuits!

Hi! I am a fourth-year student from DC. I am interested in conservation, accessibility to outdoor spaces, and exploring the ways in which different people love and appreciate the environments around them. I have taken a lot of environmental studies classes, but have also taken design classes with Brook Muller as well as law classes with Ken Cline. I am most comfortable with research and nonfiction-based writing, but I’m happy to help with brainstorming and outlining or to just be another set of eyes. Come chat or sit with me in the Writing Center — especially if you think writing is daunting and scary and you aren’t really sure if you like it, we might have something in common 🙂

Sa Bai Dee! It’s me, Lita from Laos. I’ve been interested in coming to COA since I was seventeen, even before I attended United World College East Africa (UWCEA) in Tanzania. Writing? It’s fun and amazing how we can write down our thoughts. However, it also could be challenging for some of us, especially when we write in a second, third, or fourth language. I am here to be your peer, to go through your writing with no judgment. I can offer a listening ear and help you generate ideas. And I can offer you jokes along with our session as well 🙂 Outside of the writing center? I enjoy playing badminton at the YMCA (it also could be good, I mean “goodmindton” ><). You can also find me wandering around campus. I’m here not because my writing is perfect. I’m here, as well as many of us, to learn. And I’m also eager to learn about you ~

Hola:) 

I’m Leslie. I am an international student from cdmx (awesome food there), but I’ve lived in some other random places before coming to COA (I’m a transfer student btw). I’m passionate about understanding how language shapes our ways of expressing, and I spend a lot of time thinking about ideas and feelings that words don’t always capture. Also, I love poetry.

Most of the classes I’ve taken have been in Politics, Literature, and Languages. I’ve also taken some occasional art classes, mainly related to film and video production. 

To be honest with you, college assignments have sometimes felt intimidating, or just starting them has been a huge effort. But I am still convinced that writing can be satisfying in a lot of different ways, and getting things done not only makes you feel better, but the process actually teaches you something (that something can be anything, and that’s the beautiful part).

I am happy to help at any point in your writing process, my strength -tho- remains in the early stages of writing and organizing ideas. Y, estoy encantada de ayudar en español también:)

 I’m excited to see you in the writing center. 

Abrazos, 

Les. 

Hi! I’m Zoe, a fourth-year student from Maryland. At COA I study a wide range of passions including (but not limited to) building science, law and policy, literature, history, and gardening/agriculture. I have taken classes with David Gibson, Dave Feldman, Ken Cline, and Palak Taneja. Most of my experience is in literary/social science research papers and legal writing. Outside of class, I write whatever odd creatures pop into my brain. I also speak French and Greek if you’re into learning/speaking in other languages.

What I love most is crafting mini stories in any form or any spectrum between nonfiction or fiction, academic or not. If you need help finding your voice, coming up with the right structure, or just want a second opinion on what you have on the page I’d love to help! 

Hi! I’m Yeshaya. I am a fourth-year international student from India, but I’ve lived in Europe (Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina) for the last six-ish years. I can speak a couple different languages from India, English, and German. I am passionate about having a variety of dialects and variations of languages integrated and valued in formal and informal writing.

At COA my academic focus has been on systems thinking, a way of modelling problems as interconnected and interrelated wholes as opposed to traditional analytical problem solving approaches that focus on breaking things down into smaller parts. This has led to me taking a variety of classes in different resource areas. I’ve taken some of my favourite classes with Palak Taneja, Dave Feldman, Catherine Clinger, and Su Yin Khor. These classes have helped me gain experience in tackling large or dense readings, writing structured as well as unstructured reading responses and papers, and carrying out research projects for various disciplines. In my free time I also do some creative writing (mainly poetry but occasionally prose) and I enjoy reading over other people’s creative work. I also enjoy helping people figure out how they can best express their ideas and thoughts in their own voice without feeling like there is a singular/‘proper’ way to write. 

Hi 🙂 I am a third-year student from Khewra, a remote town that is part of the Salt Range in Northern Punjab, Pakistan, and home to the second largest salt mines in the world. I grew up learning and speaking three languages: Punjabi, Urdu, and English. I am learning to incorporate all three into my writing one way or the other, so if you’re multilingual, we can definitely chat about that. Since I grew up in a small town, away from screens for the most part— conversations, people, books, and writing all come together to form a huge chunk of who I am as a person. At COA, I have taken classes with Neeraj Sebastian, Catherine Clinger, Dave Feldman, Jonathan Henderson and Jay Friedlander— which in itself is a giveaway that I have quite a wide range of interests. I really enjoy making visual art; I’ve been having fun with ink recently and I’ve found that I like taking photos. I like Physics quite a bit for someone who is not necessarily good at it, and I love organizing events. I currently work at the Communications Office, so I write for the COA website/magazine, and I can help if you’re interested in journalistic writing. Before coming to COA, I studied at UWC in Moshi, Tanzania for two years, and I enjoyed working towards creating awareness on climate change. I am hoping to focus more on classes that revolve around ideas of sustainability and climate justice here at COA too. Outside of class, you’ll find me playing cards with my friends, cooking for said friends, drawing, journaling, or yapping away at some poor soul. Although I would love to help with any kind of writing process, I’ve been told by the same friends that my writing tends to have a poetic essence to it— so I’d say that the creative/artistic aspect, or rather process, of writing is my strong suit. And as someone who grew up in a family that loves to talk, I quite appreciate the art of a good conversation too. I hope to create a space where we can share ideas and bring that art out of each other. And hopefully along the way, I’ll be able to help you find your voice in writing, one that speaks most to you!

I am an international student from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. As a writing tutor, I have become interested in creating and sharing knowledge through conversation (and how this process is also applicable to writing!).

At COA, my academic focuses have been audiovisual arts, social and political sciences, as well as technology and its relationship with the “human condition.” I am happy to help at every stage of your writing process, be that brainstorming, planning, writing or editing. I can also just be another set of eyes that can read your work. I am able to help with most forms of writing, although I would get very excited if you bring me more “creative” stuff.

I am an international student, I grew up in a family from Switzerland and Argentina. Since I was a kid I always had a passion for books (I am pretty sure you can find a picture of me reading an upside-down book at 3…). Stories have always fascinated me, that’s how writing entered in my life.

I don’t think I can say that I have a focus here at COA… in life I want to work in health care, you will probably hear me talking about midwifery at some point, but I am here because I want to learn about soooo many other topics first. So I took art classes, some more scientific ones, and a few human oriented classes as well. But coming back to the writing center, I would be happy to help you at any stage of writing. I think I would be the most helpful in the development of your ideas or creative writing and narrative driven pieces. My brain is a constant meli-melo of languages (translingual writing became my favorite concept lately), so if that is also something you do, I would love to help with that too.

I’m Huck and I’m plain frustrated by writing. There are many stories in my head of who I am and why I’m here, but the one I tell the most is that it is to reflect. I’m here to help a writer see themself within their work—the shadow and the light—to give this gift of reflection I have received time and again here in the Writing Center (especially from Ella). 

I have taken The Nature of Narrative I and II with Karen Waldron along with an assortment of writing courses (here and elsewhere) that have provided me with a curious selection of perspectives. I would love to talk about what writing means to you. My formal training is in outdoor education though, so if your writing concerns the natural world and what that means to you, consider me intrigued. In case we might connect on something else, current areas of study in my life include: somatic psychotherapy, eclectic spirituality, transpersonal psychology, shadow work, and psychoanalysis. In other words, I’m interested in how we grow and who we become.

So why work here? The Writing Center is as much a space for writing as it is for ideas. I’m curious to know what’s on your mind. Your experiences, your emotions, and what you want to express. I believe only you, the writer, can find the words for what you mean.

My name is Ryn
I come from a mountain
I can help you take your works for a spin
Help your ideas flow like water from a fountain

I can guide your thoughts to be free
To express what you can’t yet see
But as for me
I love biology

Within COA’s academism
Heather Lakey helped inspire my feminism
Suzanne Morse led me to herbalism
Jenny Rock taught me my lyricism

So, whether a scientific paper
An outline that will help you later
Or a poetry caper
I can help you become an idea maker

I’m a fourth-year student. I grew up in Bar Harbor. I spend a lot of my time journaling, reading, and writing personal, creative nonfiction stories, and poetry. I also love hiking, swimming, climbing, and basically anything outdoors. I’ve taken memoir classes with Martha Donovan and creative writing with Dan Mahoney. Before I transferred to COA I took classes in creative nonfiction, language and literature, linguistics, and poetry. I absolutely love helping with structure and flow and especially helping to make sure that personal voice and creativity are shining through in writing. I’m a big believer that all writing has the ability to be fun and true to one’s voice, even in an academic setting. 

Hi there! I’m a fourth-year student from Traverse City, Michigan, and this is my second year working at the Writing Center. My focus at COA is environmental science and botany, but I also love literature, history, and writing (crazy, I know). If you can’t tell from my picture, I love being outside, and you can probably find me in one of the gardens on campus when I’m not in the Writing Center.

I love helping people at any point in the writing process (even the terrifying blank-google-doc phase). I can help you with creative writing, poetry, journalism, and research papers. I love asking questions and learning about new ideas, so don’t be afraid to come in with an assignment that I may know nothing about. I can help you brainstorm ideas, structure an outline, or help you with the arduous process of creating citations and formatting.

Reading others’ writing inspires me; I love seeing your unique voice and learning new things. I hope to see you in the Writing Center 🙂