During the summer of 1995, as a Ph.D. student at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, I was accepted to the Acadiana Writing Project's Summer Institute.  As a Yankee living in rural Louisiana, my intensive 6 weeks with mostly native Cajuns was an eye opening experience.  As each member shared her stories (we were all women that summer) through our writing and our discussions, I became immersed in the culture and developed deep friendships with my fellow classmates.  I was impressed to learn writing tips from Kindergarten teachers, along with a number of language arts lessons from the K-12 teachers in my group (I was the only one who taught college-level students).  I often think back on the summer and the lessons I learned.  A few of the women showed me around Acadiana on weekend field trips to plantations and bayous and then we wrote about them. 

 

The following summer ('96), I palpated in the Acadiana Writing Project's Advanced Summer Institute.  Here we did more teacher-centered research and the work I did was the foundation for my dissertation which looked at service-learning connections to the writing classroom.

 

Both NWP experiences connected me to passionate writers and teachers who are life long friends.  It positively  impacted my teaching and the thousands of students I have taught since them at a number of institutions:  U of Louisiana-Lafayette, South Louisiana Community College, Francis Marion University, Monmouth University, Ramapo College and now as an administrator who trains writing tutors and faculty at the College of Saint Elizabeth.