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 third-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 ~

I was born and raised in France before I moved to UWC in Costa Rica for two years. Before coming to COA, I spent one year working in Japan in a kindergarten and as a waitress. In life I love doing music, drawing, taking pictures, making short movies, playing card games with my friends and spending time on video games. I primarily came to COA to study marine sciences but for some reasons I’m now finding myself walking around campus with a tripod and a camera in hand, and taking many visual art classes with June Kim, Nancy Andrews, Neeraj Sebastian and Colin Capers. Even though my focus took a turn, I still have an interest in biology and wildlife and take classes in this domain when I have the chance to. As a writing tutor, I aim to create a collaborative and safe place where everyone feels comfortable exploring and developing their writing, where it’s okay to feel vulnerable and full of questionment, and support at any stage of the writing process.  

Hi! I’m Yeshaya. I am a third-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 first-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.

Just north of Merrymeeting Bay, not far from the banks of the Kennebec, sits an old, grey farmhouse surrounded by pine and cedar. Every September, Sigrid McKelvey makes the journey from these many-windowed walls and wind-bent trees to an island in the Atlantic, waving goodbye to father and mother McKelvey to become a student again. Sigrid is a quaint creature—she does things like bring ten pounds of rice with her on move-in day, play video games in her nightgown, sketch different outfits for her minecraft avatar, or leave her freshly brewed tea on the counter only to remember it hours later when she emerges from her room, seeking respite from her work. Though she considers herself a good student and academic writer, her real joy in writing stems from her formative years—consistent through her family’s moves through Washington, Illinois, and Maine, Sigrid spent much of her childhood hanging onto the words of Tolkien, Lewis, and McCaffrey, who instilled in her a passion for utilizing vivid, imaginative, impactful language in her work. Somewhere in her future lies a creative writing course, but for now she’s managed to weave that passion into academic papers, curating her writing through feedback from Su Yin Khor, Jamie McKown, Palak Taneja, and Karen Waldron. Though formulaic or scientific papers are not her strong suit, she’ll happily don her tutoring cap to help with any writing or assignment style—and maybe even share your grief on how one possibly makes a good conclusion.

Howdy! My name is Eun-Jae (they/he) and I’m a fourth-year in my third year at the COA writing center. My primary focuses at COA are marine ecology and creative writing, though I also love to investigate any grey area between, within, or without those fields– I love investigating the vast webs of connections between organisms, projects, disciplines, worlds, and stories. 

As a student, I’ve taken multiple classes with Kara Gadeken, Sean Todd, Dr. Slabach, Palak Taneja, John Anderson, Susan Letcher, and Jodi Baker. Some of my favorite classes I’ve taken so far have been Intertidal Ecology (Kara), Wildlife Ecology (Dr. B.), Nature of Narrative (Karen), Intro to Postcolonialism (Palak), and Invertebrate Zoology (Kara). I’ve spent two summers on Mount Desert Rock (see attached image) and am always THRILLED to tell people about the writing opportunities there. I work most frequently in essays/creative nonfiction, academic/scientific papers, and short fiction, though I also love poetry and novels/novellas! I’m particularly interested in more experimental work– if you’ve got some you want eyes on, come meet with me! Get weird with it!

My favorite elements of the tutoring process are the ones that develop and communicate new ideas, and I want everyone I meet with to walk away feeling more confident in their writing ability. As a tutor, my primary focus is working with you to develop and present your ideas in a way that rings clear and faithful to your vision– from brainstorming to fine-tuning, I’m always happy to help! 

Hi! My name is Neha, and I am a senior at COA:) I have loved creative writing since I was really young. I have taken classes within the area of education/pedagogy, creative arts practice and feminist literature and theory. I love to work on the brainstorming/idea stages of writing, especially creative non-fiction, narrative essays and close readings! I am always thinking critically and creatively about ways to reimagine education, so if you are also thinking about ways to do that (maybe within your writing), I’d love to see you in the writing center 🙂 

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.

Hi. I’m Ella, and I am from clear across the country, where the sun sets. I found my way to COA through my longing for a small, quirky, engaging, liberal arts education. I entered with a passion for creative writing and intrigue for physics and have since cultivated an appreciation for literature and discovered an immense excitement for philosophy. In my spare moments, I’m probably finding a nook near the waters’ edge or in the woods, lyrically scribbling in a journal, possibly accompanied by a ukulele. I like to sketch, write songs, listen to radio lab, ponder abstractions and dissect societal systems, laugh til my body aches, cook quesadillas while listening to a musical, and skip down the carriage roads in late fall to “Evermore.” So far, the Writing Center has revealed to me that all you need to cure an inspiration drought is a couple plants and a string of colored lights. Bring a mug of a warm beverage and a cozy sweater, and we’ll be so productive as we work out the intricacy of your ideas and the potential of your current project.

I have taken a humanities dominated course load consisting mostly of literature, philosophy, and music: Human Ecology Core Course(John Anderson), The Poet’s Profession(Rhiannon Lewis), Writing Seminar: Utopia/Dystopia(Heather Lakey), Introduction to Songwriting(Caroline Cotter), Native American Literature(Karen Waldron), Rethinking the Canon(Heather Lakey), African American Literature(Karen Waldron), Dissecting Popular Music(Jonathan Henderson), Troubadours…(Katherine Turok), Spanish 1(Karla Pena), Postcolonial Islands(Netta Van Vliett), Chaos and Fractals(Dave Feldmen), the Yucatan program(Karla Pena), Writing Your Novela(Blake Cass), American Dreaming: Theater and Activism(Jodi Baker), a Music Composition independent study(Jonathan Henderson), Intermediate 2 Spanish(Karla Pena), Trees and Shrubs(Jill Webber), Philosophy of Mind(Franklin Jacoby), Dramatic Studio Writing(Andrea Lepcio), Thermodynamics(Dave Feldman), Derrida and Questions of Difference(Netta Van Vliett), Hamlet(Jodi Baker), Memoir Fragments(Martha Donovan), and Nature of Narrative (Karen Waldron).

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. 

My name is Ryn

I come from a mountain

I can help you take your words 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 second-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 third 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 🙂

Hi! I am an international student from the Wallmapu, Mapuche indigenous territory of what we now call Argentina. I come from a region of mountains where we give much value to the “spoken word” to share a moment and talk. Talking is an almost ritualistic act for us, and it is prioritized because we know that from those shared words, new worlds are born. The process of sharing ideas to build together is the process that excites me the most when it comes to writing.

At COA, my academic focuses are social and climate justice, political ecology, art, and everything in between. The professors I have taken the most classes with have been Doreen Stabinsky, Netta Van Vliet, Suzanne Morse, and Heather Lakey.

When tutoring I really enjoy working on the creative aspect of writing so that together, we can organize, develop and play with ideas that best communicate your own voice. A big part of my writing (and life) involves constantly switching languages, I could help you with your multilingualism too! My strength definitely lies more in the initial and middle stages of writing than last-minute fine-tuning of grammar. 

I think writing can be an enjoyable process, and I’d love to help you see it that way too, sharing some tea and thoughts.

Hej hej! 

I’m Emmy, I’m a senior, and I come from the town Umeå/Ubmeje in northern Sweden, a place of midnight sun and endless winters. I rely on writing a lot in my life as a tool for thinking and reflecting, and, currently, I am trying (!) to get into the habit of writing little poems.

As a tutor, brainstorming ideas (creating chaos) and making a plan (organizing the chaos) are my favourite steps to help with. For example, we could make some beautiful mind maps together on the whiteboard, chat over a cup of tea or go for a walk for a change of scenery. I’ve taken classes with Heather Lakey, Su Yin Khor, Todd Little-Siebold, Netta van Vliet, Ken Cline, and Doreen Stabinsky, to name a few. I have also worked as Karla Peña’s Spanish TA and have a big interest in biology/chemistry. So, regardless of the subject area, I am excited to work with you!

Hi! My name is Sam. I am very into storytelling. Not just novels but movies, shows, animations, podcasts, fanfiction, musicals, comics, plays, and TTRPGs. If you don’t know where I am, there’s a good chance I’m either leading, watching, or thinking about a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons.

At COA, I have taken many classes with Palak Taneja and Karen Waldron. I have also taken courses by John Anderson, Kendra Rand, Blake Cass, Nancy Andrews, and Catherine Clinger. I have the most experience with the writing expected from literature classes (essays, loose formality, MLA format, quoting various things, figurative whatnot, rhetoric, Language™, etc.), but I have an AAS in Biotechnology so I do know some science stuff. If it’s writing anywhere on the spectrum from formal to creative, I can do it. 😀

English is a nonsense garbage language. But as a cartographer and acolyte of that landfill, I can help with ideas, structure, vibes, and grammar. I can and will beta read anything. I am easily distractible and cannot guarantee that I won’t ramble about something and drag you into the spiral with me.

I am so normal about writing. I promise. <]:) (the smile has a cowboy hat)