Writing center director to be honored for collaborative learning


Paula Gillespie, associate professor and director of the FIU Center for Excellence in Writing (CEW), is the 2011 recipient of the Ron Maxwell Award for Distinguished Leadership in Promoting the Collaborative Learning Practices of Peer Tutors in Writing.

Gillespie will receive the award during the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, which is being hosted Nov. 4-6 at FIU’s Kovens Conference Center on the Biscayne Bay Campus. The Ron Maxwell Leadership Award recognizes those who have contributed to undergraduate student development and student responsibility through collaborative education. A committee of nine previous award winners unanimously selected Gillespie to receive this year’s honor.

“My experience with Paula has been life-changing,” said Dariel Suarez, ’11, former peer tutor at CEW. “Working with her, I was able to see first-hand the impact she has on other people, students and faculty alike. She had a huge impact on my undergraduate career and continues to be my mentor. If you ever work with her, you’ll always hold her close to heart – that’s who she is. That’s Paula.“

Gillespie has dedicated her career, that spans more than 30 years, to cooperative learning and peer tutoring through her work with writing centers, publications of books and articles and leading workshops.

“There is a certain comfort level in partnering up with your peers and having them give you feedback on your work,” Gillespie said. “Peers are people that often look like you and have similar attributes and goals. The students that I see seeking out peer tutors respect them for their expertise and they are respected as writers in return. It’s really an empowering process.”

Gillespie has also co-created the Writing Center Summer Institute, a week-long writing-intensive retreat for professionals, and the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project (PWTARP), a resource-sharing website for former peer tutors.

At FIU, Gillespie organized the Dissertator’s Retreat, a collaborative program between the CEW and the FIU Graduate School where doctoral students can visit daily with her and other assistant directors to discuss their goals and progress on their dissertations.

“Paula has revolutionized the way in which we approach student writing,” said James Sutton, chairman of the Department of English. “Her focus on peer tutoring has really promoted a culture of student responsibility where they look out for each other and uphold high academic standards.”

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