While most students were sleeping in on their day off last Friday, the Literacy Center tutors were here at Niles West for the COWLLC’s (Chicago-land Organization of Writing Literacy and Learning Center) annual spring conference.
There were 530 tutors from 22 different schools who attended the regional conference. The schools attending were primarily high schools from nearby, but two Minnesota high schools and one Florida high school flew in to attend the conference as well. Representatives from three colleges–DePaul University, Columbia College, and University of Illinois–also came to the event.
“We have the largest peer tutoring program in the world. There has never been a high school peer conference of this size before. It’s a one-of-a-kind event to look forward to. By the end of session one people were already asking about next year,” said Andrew Jeter, Literacy Center Coordinator and event organizer.
The conference consisted of four sessions and had about 18 workshops such as a tutor speed-dating session. Some tutors even led their own workshops. The most popular sessions were the University of Illinois and DePaul University sessions that were run by former Lit Center tutors, such as Colin Sato, who graduated in 2008.
“It went really, really well,” said Jeter. “[The conference] gave the tutors an opportunity for professional growth.”
Literacy Center tutor and senior Nicole Yoon agreed.
“One thing I really liked was the collaboration with other schools,” said Yoon. “There were too many sessions to get to talk with other tutors, but there were sessions held for that like Tutor Speed-Dating. I also led the Can-You-Fix-This Session about how to make the most out of a tutoring session, which went really well.”
Another Literacy Center tutor, Alexis Yusim, said she enjoyed the conference too.
“I thought it was good that the presentations were applicable to tutoring,” said Yusim. I liked hearing about tutoring from other people. Everyone who was there was happy to be there. I did a session on being a rent-a-tutor.”
There were 173 out of the 202 Niles West tutors present due to the contracts they signed at the beginning of the year which required them to attend. Some tutors were absent due to DECA and Echo Effect Competitions, Jeter said.
Gwen • Mar 9, 2011 at 7:35 PM
To me the best part of the conference was the friendliness everyone displayed. Students were so open to meeting new people. People who had never met before, who went to different schools (in different states), were able to work together easily. I thought it was a really great, positive experience. Also,quick little typo fix, Alexis is a she.