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#4C16 NEWSLETTER

Welcome to Houston! Abby Koenig, CCCC Local Committee Chair

The WPA-GO wishes you a warm welcome to the 2016 Conference on College Composition and Communication. Like so many of you, we look forward to this annual conference all

year. It is an opportunity to connect with friends and colleagues, old and new.

If you have never been to Houston before, you are in for a treat. Houston is often cited as one of the fasted growing cities in the United States. The city’s massive population growth is due to a world-renowned medical center, the energy corridor, and top-

notch universities. Additionally, Houston has become a cultural destination with an award-winning theater and museums. I

hope you have a chance to explore the city, take in the sights, and don’t forget to take advantage of all the amazing restaurants

the city has to offer—find some time to eat barbecue and you won’t be disappointed!

Excellence Award ($200): Aubrey Schiavone “Locating the ‘Learner’ in Learning Transfer: (How) Does Identity Facilitate or Impede Transfer Between Academic and Non-Academic Domains?” D.34 Inclusiveness Award ($100): Sarah Snyder "Rethinking Teaching and Learning Practices for Diverse Populations in the University: A Roundtable on Taking Pedagogical & Administration Action" B.07 Merit Award ($100): Elizabeth Leahy "Local Histories and Multilingual Student Engagement: A Trans-Hemispheric Approach" C.36 Merit Award ($100): Eric James Stephens [ATTW Panel Presentation] “Advocating for the Inexperienced: Teaching Social Justice and Citizenship with Limited Time, Resources, and Experience” [CCCC Research Network Forum] “Being Muted or Muting Themselves?: When Women Challenge Gendered Practices in the Mormon Church”

Travel Award Winners

WPA-GO Graduate Committee members

We are excited to announce our Call for Applications for a NEW Treasurer and

Masters Rep. Apps due April 1.

See our Facebook page for more details!

Kat O’Meara, Chair Virginia Schwarz, Vice Chair

Al Harahap, Past Chair

Congratulations to the recipients! You can view their presentation sessions below. Thank you to our Travel Grants Committee chaired

by Mary McCall for their work on this initiative!

Graduate Committee Logan Bearden, Christina LaVecchia, Ruth

Osorio, Emily Simnitt, and Matthew Tougas

Ex-Officio Members Mary McCall, Treasurer

Erin Workman, Secretary Amanda Pratt, Masters Representative

Writing program administrators graduate organization

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Upcoming GO initiatives…

NEW! Digital Story Project Taskforce Christina LaVecchia, Chair

This new taskforce is in the early stages of conducting interviews with graduate students, in concert with the CWPA Membership & Newcomers and Digital WPA Committees (and their Digital Ethnography: Curating the Stories of WPA Workers project). Our aims are to capture the ways in which the mentorship and training of future WPAs has become more and more varied, as well as how graduate students are increasingly taking on WPA work before graduating. We also support the original project’s goals of getting to know the fabric of our membership’s daily working realities. We are currently seeking participants to tell their story and have it recorded by one of our taskforce members. Please get in touch with us at wpago1@gmail.com for more information or to set up an interview!

In only its second year of existence, the Mentors at CCCC’s (M@Cs) Program, inspired by the Breakfast Buddies Program at CWPA, has shown considerable breadth and diversity. The 120 participants for the 2016 M@C’s demonstrate this breadth and diversity not only through their institutional affiliation, but also through their topics of interest and mentoring pairs.

Mentors and mentees from 78 different U.S. institutions of higher education, and of all types of institutions have signed up. Topics of interest are infinite, which is wonderful when considering that the backbone of this mentoring effort is a mutual interest in WPA. We have also seen a rise in extra-curricular topics of mentoring, such as work-life balance and the job market/negotiation. The pairs of mentoring that people ask for are diverse, as many opportunities exist for new, junior, and senior faculty to mentor PhD students as well as new faculty.

We hope that the M@C’s program continues to be helpful for all involved, and thank you, CCCC, WPA-GO, and CWPA for continued support of this program!

The GO is now on Social Media!

WPA-GO Social Mixer

Mentoring at CCCC’s (M@Cs) Ruth Osorio, Mentoring Events Chair

Thursday, April 7th 9:00-11:00pm Pappasito’s Cantina at the Hilton Hotel 1600 Lamar Street

Join the Council of Writing Program Administrators at the 2016 CCCC for an evening of networking and conference conversation. Visit with colleagues and enjoy a margarita on us. After engaging with fellow attendees, stay for the raffle as the night continues. Pappasito’s, our 2016 mixer location, carries a wide variety of menu options, and for those staying near the conference hotel, our committee has conveniently located this WPA-GO event within walking distance of the conference hub and area hotels.

Come early for a drink ticket!!

This event is coordinated by the WPA-GO CCCC Local Committee, which sets the Houston social itinerary.

Join the WPA Café Group on Facebook!

Virginia Schwarz, Vice Chair

In addition to Facebook, your WPA-GO has an online presence on Twitter and Instagram! Follow us at @wpa_go, and tag your posts and pics throughout the conference with the hashtag #wpaGO! Thanks to our NEW Digital Presence Committee, co-chaired by Logan Bearden and Emily Simnitt, for coordinating this effort.

Want to join the GO??? Check us out online at wpacouncil.org/wpa-go or Email wpago1@gmail.com with “Join” in the subject.

WPA-GO members have created an unofficial place to hang out, the WPA Cafe. Hopefully, this becomes a place where gWPAs and graduate students excited about program administration, leadership, pedagogy, and justice may assemble across institutions to meet one another.

Sometimes graduate school and gWPA work can feel isolating, and the Cafe is one way graduate students could network and offer a supportive ear, and even make long-term friendships and connections. All current graduate students in Composition & Rhetoric or in other grad programs doing Composition & Rhetoric-related projects are welcome!

Members of this group are also encouraged to join WPA-GO, the official graduate organization for writing program administrators. Help make the Cafe great by adding your conversation topics to the mix!

THANK YOU to Norton for their generous donation to fund our social!

@wpa_go #wpaGO @wpa_go #wpaGO @wpa_go #wpaGO