I was delighted to start as a graduate research assistant with PSU’s Department of Applied Linguistics in the Fall 2011 term. I had volunteered with the Portland Literacy Council as a tutor of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for about a year and a half and this department coordinated PSU’s TESOL program.

​

Steve Reder, a professor for this department, needed graduate assistants to assist with his nonprofit called the Learner Web. I was hired on, through a grant from a consortium of nonprofits to help to implement (and provide behind-the-scenes web production of) these online learning plans for developing writers.

​

The screen captures and pictures to the right help to illustrate the writing plans, and my time with Learner Web. My assistance was strictly on the back end of the website, which was an interesting alternative to the writing and editing I normally do. Being immersed in this nonprofit has helped me stay grounded in providing essential writing and editing services for those who, for whatever reason, have not found the world of education or publishing particularly welcoming to them. Steve calls this gap between high school and higher education the point at which young people “fall through the cracks in the education system.”

​

The five-day trip that I was able to take to the Commission on Adult Basic Education in New Orleans with my colleagues from the Learner Web compounded my gradual understanding of this trend. At this conference, I sat in on a session in which the presenter discussed teaching postsecondary writing skills. In this session, I was shaken to recognize how vast the gap is between a student in developmental writing classes and being published.



Like I said, it’s kind of a long story, but the gist of it is this:

​

​If more underrepresented communities (ESOL included) had better access to postsecondary writing skills, the dearth of gender and racial equity in publishing would not be as immense.



The Learner Web is helping to resolve this inequity by providing the marginalized with access to many basic education skills, and beyond that, with developmental writing learning plans. After I graduate, I would like to continue working with this program. I believe wholeheartedly in the good it can do.