Students critique, improve WU through class writing project

By Monica Kreber

kreberm@mytjnow.com

A Winthrop with earlier cultural events, mentoring programs and the end to early athletic registration could be in the realm of possibilities.

Students in Cynthia Macri’s writing 465 class seem to think so anyway. 

Huddled together in groups of threes, students have moved chairs to sit with their classmates pulling “cover letters” out of folders and talking about “critiques” that need to be done.

These are no ordinary groups. 

In fact, no one in each group is even working on the same thing. This is not a typical writing class–although ample writing is involved.

The class is filled with business majors, all with individual projects that involve proposing an issue that exists within the community (or within the Winthrop community) and finding a solution. 

Senior business administration major Diane Vargas is striving to get Winthrop to reconsider cultural event times.

Vargas said so many cultural events are held at night, in the afternoon and during common hour at the earliest, but she is trying to find a way for students to attend cultural events earlier in the day.

“If they can have more (early) cultural events, that would be great,” she said.

Senior business administration major Ryan Parker said his project involves trying to fix the priority registration student-athletes have at Winthrop. 

Parker doesn’t agree with athletes registering for classes first.

“I understand why they register first,” he said, “but they shouldn’t get it.”

Instead of focusing strictly on Winthrop and college students, senior business administration major Lindsay Brown said her project focuses on a different demographic.

She proposes the idea of making more mentoring programs available for minority students (teenagers) within the community.

The students said the project lasts the entire semester and they are still at the beginning of their work.

“It’s not enjoyable,” Brown said, “but it helps.”

Because the whole class is based off the project, the issues the students have chosen to investigate have not yet been resolved. They have been proposed, and students are now talking to committees and leaders at Winthrop to help with their projects.

The students must create project memos, cover letters, project proposals and reports, among other requirements, for the class project.

Vargas said she found the class stressful on top of having to take upper-level management classes for her major.

“It is just helping me be more responsible,” she said, “and learn time management.”

Brown said the class has helped her with the business aspect.

“I needed more help on my resume,” she said. “The cover letter was a lot of help.” 

Parker said he did not find it particularly difficult, despite holding down a job and managing other classes.

“It (the work) is heavy,” he said, “but it all gets done.”

The students said that although they knew they were required to take the class, they had no idea what the class project would involve.

“I didn’t know what the class was going to be like,” Vargas said.