It was writer coaches and students again yesterday, but it was a Saturday, so the action wasn't in one of our regular classrooms. It was at Contra Costa College, and the occasion was the annual West County Getting Ready for College Conference. For the second straight year, WCC volunteers were a part of it, providing individual coaching for students on their college- and scholarship-application essays. Here's a roomful of coaches and students as the first of our two writing workshops began:
We estimated in advance that the total conference attendance, students and parents, would be 200, and 350 people showed up! We figured we'd be coaching 80 students and instead 180 kids poured into our six classrooms for help with their essays. Fortunately, 36 WCC coaches were waiting for them, nearly twice as many as last year, and so our volunteers were still able to give individual attention to small groups of students. In some cases, as in this photo, the action was one on one:
The West Contra Costa Public Education Fund, which organized this year's conference, regarded WCC participation as so important that they dedicated one of two tracks in each of the two student workshop slots to our writer coaching, with the other track divided up among four other topics (the application process, financial aid) relating to college access.
Many thanks to our dedicated and motivated coaches: Marcia Bates, Larry Bensky, Janice Chamberlain, Elizabeth Claman, Rachel DeBaere, Don Del Pilar, Maia Discoe, Maureen Dixon, Pam Fadem, Kim Finnegan, Anne Good, Todd Groves, Kathleen Hallam, Kristen Dachler Kapfer, Laura Kay, Chris Kiefer, Ali Lawrence, Kristl Lee, Charlotte Martinez, Tom McMahon, Jim Morgan, Maryl Olivera, Kathlyn Pihl, Yvonne Prevo, David Rodriguez, Chad Runyon, Carolyn Said, Barbara Scheifler, Annie Stine, John Sutton, Marcie Thomas, Thomas Tramble, Hao Tran, Angela Wang, Carolyn Yarosh, and Linda Young.
WCC participation in this conference is further evidence of the value-added nature of our program. This factor is a reason that more schools and districts continue to ask us about WCC.
Bob Menzimer
