‘If you learn about these issues, you're going to learn...more about yourself and things that you come in contact with every day’: Engaging undergraduate students in meaningful literacy in a research writing course

This study explores the experiences of undergraduate students enrolled in a required research writing class that focused on the topics of social (in)justice and diversity and which allowed students to conduct their own empirical research. In order to investigate their experiences with the topics and with the empirical research project, we employed the use of interviews and analyzed the data by organizing it by themes. Short narrative profiles of eight of the participants that we focus on for this study are provided. From the participants’ experiences, we also explore two themes: students’ engagement with social (in)justice in a required undergraduate writing course and incorporating empirical research in a required research writing course. Finally, we provide implications for teaching and teaching writing

Creating SkillZone: a tutoring program for international students and scholars

According to the Institute of International Education, international students represent a sizeable portion of the student body within the higher education system of the United States – a total of 886, 052 international students were enrolled in either a public or private institution during the 2013-2014 academic year. However, literature related to tutoring centers built specifically for international students is lacking. As such, it is essential that this specific population be addressed within relevant research. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the current model of an academic support center for international students at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania