Wait, I can has jobs from Shimer?

Well, if you count FWS or work grants, then yes. But there's another way with infinitely more beautiful abilities, and it is known as the Shimer Internship-Mentorship Program. That's a bit of a mouthful, but its acronym, SIM, still makes me smile. (Oh, come on. I know you've at least heard of that computer game.)

Anyway, there's a bit of paperwork to go through, but essentially what it does is allow you to find some unpaid internship or work that you'd want to do and... get paid for it! Well, I'm trying not to let money be my primary objective but it's a nice bonus.

You've read about the adventures of Jesus in his internship below. Mine may not be as exotic but it's far too much fun for anything associated with the word "job" or "internship."

I get to work as a writing lab tutor in the Harold Washington College Writing Lab, one of the city colleges in the Loop.

I was terribly excited to get to do anything dealing with writing. But I wasn't sure what to expect, so going there my first time was nerve-wracking. But it turns out I needn't have worried--working there is a great deal like working in the Shimer Admission Office. It's fairly laid back and relaxed, everyone who works there knows everyone, and the people who work there know how to help you fit in almost immediately. Never mind that I'm the most undereducated person in the room.

 
The only one who's not got a BA here. Yet.

My first week or so was dedicated to getting to know the lab and the people (snacks: good. People-watching in the hotel directly across from us: good. Having rainy weather or running out of coffee: not so good). I shadowed a few of the tutors there to get an idea of how they went about helping students. I'd tutored once before, in high school, and the folks I had there were... apathetic, to put it nicely. They wanted me to do their essays for them. But that's not what we do here. Watching the other people work, I got a sense of how they were going about it: asking the writer what they wanted, asking them their purpose and intent, and through a dialogue of question and thought drawing from the writer's own mind improvements that could be made.

Wow, I thought. This is a lot like Shimer.

And in fact it is. Not every writer comes in with the same background in writing, the same experience, the same assignment. The challenge is to gauge their level and abilities and help them to find out what they want. I learn as much as they do about the whole writing process.

I do work with a wide range of students, and not all come in for writing--the ESL students who come in for help on editing rather than content know the rules of English grammar better than I do, and it's quite difficult to explain why an article goes there when there's clearly no sense to it other than "it sounds right."  The native speaker card is the last one I play.

But the basic pedagogical process behind Shimer and the Writing Lab is the same: you have the ability to do what you want. My job, or the facilitator's job, or the book's job, is just to help make that visible.

Comments

[Writing Jane]

I wish I could turn back time and revive my 2 years shimers. It was a blast and I really enjoyed it. It's great to hear you do the same! Good luck...