University Writing Center

January 2009

Matt- Even if you didn’t lose everything, you still lost your home for a time being….Although we lost a lot of property and lost a lot of valuable possessions we gained a lot of friends and a lot of networking opportunities that we would of never had and that’s invaluable.

Meghan- Howdy Aggies! I’m Meghan Wall and welcome to Write Away. In this episode we’re talking to four students from Texas A&M Galveston who were displaced by Hurricane Ike in the Fall of 2008.  Three of the students are writing coaches at the TAMUG Writing Lab and one student is a frequent user of the Lab.  The Galveston writing lab provided one place of refuge for Galveston students, who spent the semester struggling to catch up on school work while adjusting to life in a new town, at a new school.

Meghan- I’ll be interviewing writing coaches, Matthew Norwood, Helen Conrad, and Ben Gilbert as well as Galveston student Kimberly Gressler.

Meghan- With nearly all of the student services closed with the transition what did it mean to you for the writing lab to stay open?

Ben- We were in a very lucky position… we got to keep the writing lab open and keep our jobs whereas a lot of the students who were student workers didn’t.  Our Rec, students who worked in our Rec center don’t work in the Rec center up here, students who worked in the library, don’t work in the library up here.  So, yeah, we were very fortunate.

Meghan- Matt, have you been pretty busy in the lab?

Matt- We average about 15 students a day, for College Station that small operations but for what we have at Galveston, only having about 2500 students on campus, that’s a lot, and it’s been pretty successful faculty members, advisors, students, they all come to us, in my opinion, to feel at home, just to have faces around. Being in the library and having a lot of students around kind of seems like a more home situation.

Meghan- So Helen, have you noticed the lab being busier?

Helen- We’ve had more people coming in, I don’t know if it is because they are discovering us or they just wanted something like a safe zone. I answer all the emails too, and I’ve been answering way more emails than I’m used to.  Like I got an email, I think it was sometime last week, asking the day it was due if we could help with the paper, like ‘it’ due at seven, can I come in at four?’ and I just don’t have enough time for that.  But because of the semester we’ve been trying to kind of make accommodations fo r that.  A lot of time has been put into making sure that other students are okay. When it comes to this semester, like I know I’ve run out of time on certain things, and sometimes you do just need help on something, so I will like drop what I’m doing and go meet with a student.

Meghan- Kimberly, how often do you go to the writing lab?

Kim- I go into the writing lab quite often not only because of the help that I get, it’s constantly, it’s uplifting, people there are always willing to help, but it’s also familiar faces, you can go in there and get your stuff checked, do your homework, get things done, and your with other sea Aggies. Up here on campus, it’s huge, you don’t know anyone, we came in middle of the semester, you know a lot of us, like myself, lost our homes, we lost everything that we had and so just to be with some people that you recognize, and someone that you know is wanting to help you succeed it’s just been really encouraging.

Meghan- What has it meant to you having the writing lab here on a day to day basis?

Kim- And a lot of our professors aren’t here, we’re seeing them via telecast, which I mean, at least were seeing them, but at the same time they’re not physically here to say I have a problem, I need you to look at this, and Vic is here every day, Eddie is here every day, Ben and Helen and you know the writing center is here.

Meghan- How has the writing lab acted as a safe zone Matt?

Matt- There’s a lot of students, it’s a comfort issue, and I deal with that, there’s times I’m around this campus, I’m not familiar with anybody or anything and I run into a Galveston face, it makes you feel at home. And I think that’s one of the better parts about this situation with us being in the library here, it’s gave students a place they can go, even if they don’t have a paper at least they can talk to us. So we don’t want to say that we’re there to council students, but in the general sense that’s what we, as friends and peers, that’s what we’re here for, you know to help each other through situations like this.

Meghan- Ben, was the transition to College Station stressful for you?

Ben- Stressful yes, because a lot of people, we all had our own things going on, worrying about school, worrying about, especially when we got here, for some of the people, where are we going to stay, how much is it going to cost, what’s life going to be like up here, where is everything, we didn’t know what any of the buildings were. Some people were really stressed out about that, just freaking out, but we’ve managed though.

Meghan- Was moving to College Station what you expected it would be?

Matt- I didn’t’t know what to expect but I was surprised with the amount of students that had wide opened arms for us, and really went out of their way to make us feel at home.  So for me it’s been enjoyable, it’s tough but you know we got the best out of it and I think it brought all the A&M students closer together. I personally feel like I’ve gotten the whole college experience as opposed to if I’d only been at Galveston and had never stepped foot on College Station campus.

Meghan- Did you enjoy spending your last semester in College Station Ben?

Ben- It has been fun working up here.   As a senior I was really eager to get out of Galveston, senioritis setting in and what not, so this was a very welcome change.  Again all things considered, for my last semester, stressful in ways but very nice in many others.sv

Meghan- What has this experience meant to you Matt?

Matt- I feel like I’ve experienced something with a group of people that will allow me to have a connection with this group of people for the rest of my life. You know there’s a point in your life when things happen and you could either take two roads and I believe if you take the road that sticks through school, and even though we went through a natural disaster, and you come out and you realize what you went through looking back, nobody can strip you of that.  And the college experience that everybody talks about is that, defining yourself with something that nobody can strip from you.  And we had the opportunity, due to this natural disaster, to experience that with each other.  So I think Galveston as a whole, me personally will look back and be more prepared for future tasks than if this natural disaster didn’t happen.

Meghan- Do you think this experience has been positive for the writing center?

Ben- Yes I do think we are stronger. Right now we’re still stressed because even though we’ve sort of settled in to this it’s still a stressful thing because it’s not our native environment so to speak.  So I think some of us are ready to pop right now but on the whole I’d say the group did get stronger and more cohesive.  Also I think the increased traffic this semester will show itself in even a more significant way next semester when we are back home and people are in their familiar environment and so yeah I think this has worked out, everything considered, well for the writing lab.

Meghan- So Matt, what changes do you anticipate when you guys go back to Galveston?

Matt- Work I believe will be a lot easier in Galveston than in College Station just for the simple fact that we won’t be dealing with students on a day to day basis emotionally like we are. It will be a lot better just to be at home, walk around, smell the salt air; there’s something about it that you just miss, and you can’t wrap your finger around it, it’s just something.  When you drive around Galveston Island, its still, 75% of the businesses and homes were destroyed and so you know that’s going to take years; the strand still has an inch of sand on the streets.  Things like this will you know affect Galveston for the next couple of years, but A&M Galveston, you know will pick itself up and dust itself off and we’ll be ready to go.

Meghan- After finishing up the fall semester these students along with 1700 of their classmates headed back to Galveston.  Ben Gilbert graduated in December of 2008, while Juniors Helen Conrad and Matt Norwood plan to continue the success of the writing lab into the spring semester.  Senior Kimberly Gressler plans to graduate in May and contributes much of her success in getting this far to the help of the writing coaches at the TAMUG Writing Lab.  I’m your host Meghan Wall and thanks for listening to “Write Away.”