What Happened in February:

Writing Their Own Love Story

by Cassandra Holcombe

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, “love is in the air” everywhere. This week, the MC Writing Center caught up with a couple whose own love story began in the English department several years ago.

Caleb Bedillion and his wife Allison worked as MC Writing Center tutors and then graduated in 2011. The happily married couple now enjoys living life together, him with an English literature degree and her with an English education degree.

Originally hailing from Monroe, Louisiana, Caleb Bedillion now works as the government and politics reporter at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, located in Tupelo.

As a well-known Mississippi reporter, Mr. Bedillion had the opportunity to serve as a moderator for the Senate debate last fall. He often writes several articles per day and works on bigger projects as well, including the November election day coverage of 2018.

Concerning his time at MC, his growth as a writer, and his best piece of advice for an MC student, Bedillion provided some interesting insight. During his senior year, he chose to work as a tutor because it was a good on-campus job. It would help in “building my own skills as a writer,” he said.

He first encountered his now wife Allison through various English classes. They both took Dr. Randle for Analysis of Literature during sophomore year and then took two different English classes together during junior year.

“We were already dating when I started working at the writing center during the spring of junior year, but we had a couple shifts together, and that gave us an opportunity to spend a little more time together,” he said. “I think Allison enjoyed working at the writing center even more than I did.”

To reach his current level of writing and reporting, Bedillion practiced and practiced. Combining his English major with two minors, Philosophy and History, he was challenged with multiple term papers or writing projects that helped improve his skills.

Bedillion is very satisfied with the quality of writing he produces. He specifically enjoys writing personal columns for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, “including one reflecting on the ongoing legacy of racial division in Mississippi,” he added.

He now writes multiple articles each day as a journalist. “I have tried to exhibit ongoing effort combined with a self-critical attitude and a desire to keep improving,” Bedillion said.

As a word of advice, Bedillion suggests students should focus more on learning from their classes rather than just earning a good grade. These two “are not always the same thing,” he explained.

The MC Writing Center allows you to both learn and turn in a better paper. You can get a head start on your next assignment by making an appointment here: https://mc.mywconline.com/.

To this day, Caleb and Allison utilize the many skills they learned at Mississippi College. This love story started with just a writing center and a few English classes. Now they pursue exciting careers and continue to write their own story…together.

You can follow Mr. Bedillion on Twitter, @CalebBedillion, or read his writing at djournal.com to keep up with all the latest in Mississippi government and politics.

What Happened in March:

A Big Weekend for MC: The MSWCA Conference

by Cassandra Holcombe

It has been a big weekend here at Mississippi College as we hosted the 2019 Mississippi Writing Center Association Conference. Mississippi College Writing Center Assistant Director Lingshan Song, assisted by veteran tutor and receptionist Sam Dean, organized and created a great event for writing center tutors and directors across the state to come together and connect at. One hundred attendees from across Mississippi and from a few neighboring states came.

The conference started on Saturday with Provost Ron Howard giving a short speech about the importance of the writing center and the Mississippi College Writing Center in particular. Dr. Howard referred to it as “the jewel of MC” and said that having the writing center was crucial to student success in writing and critical thinking.

After Dr. Howard’s speech, individual presentations began including a presentation about the need for a lending library in the writing center by MC tutors Christine Anderson and Katherine Parker. There was also a presentation on collaborative poetry by Hinds Community College Writing Center Coordinator, Bethany Kinney, and another on diversity in writing centers by Caily Ness and Morgan Moss, who are tutors from Millsaps College.

Next was a very special keynote speech by the Chair of the International Writing Center Association, Dr. Grutsch McKinney from Ball State University.

Dr. Grutsch McKinney addressed the idea of skills learned in the writing center having value outside of the writing center. She specifically talked about how being a writing center tutor enhances communication and people skills along with the ability to work as a team, something that employers in today’s job market value highly. Dr. Grutsch McKinney also discussed the idea of emotional intelligence and how the writing center helps develop it and that writing center tutors should try to be more intentional about it.

After Dr. Grutsch McKinney had fed our minds, we proceeded next door where a Mississippi College favorite waited to fill our bellies: fried chicken.

With full and contented bellies, we went into the next round of individual presentations were MC’s Dr. Steven Price presented on the idea of meta-analysis in writing centers, a topic that has been sadly neglected in writing center literature as a whole. Before Dr. Price’s presentation, there were two presentations, one on building connections between different writing centers by the Millsaps Writing Center consultants and one on working with students with hearing disabilities in the writing center.

From there, the paths of writing center administrators and their tutors diverged as the tutors headed off to bond over fun and games led by MC receptionist Taylor Hathorn, and the administrators went to converse with one another.

The two groups came back to together for a final session of individual presentations. The first presentation given was by MC tutors Sydney Nicholson and Isaac Jackson on the topic of online tutoring and why few tutors are interested in it. A presentation on the presence of white colonialism in writing centers and how writing centers can stifle other cultures followed.

Coincidentally, the last presentation was given by yours truly who talked about the importance of outlines to tutor and writer cooperation with tales of three-legged races gone horribly wrong and tomatoes squished by hammers. It was a fitting and funny note to end the individual presentations on.

I did not have the last word of the entire conference, though. That honor went to Mrs. Kathleen Hutchison who talked about how the Leland Speed Library and the Mississippi College Writing Center have been great allies throughout the years.

After the conference, one tutor in particular expressed how much he liked the conference.

“I really enjoyed being a part of the MSWCA Conference! I thought that the experience was really helpful for me personally and professionally."

-Sam, Economics Major and Peer Tutor at Jackson State University

But in my opinion, what happened after the conference was just as valuable a statement on collaboration as any that was made at the conference. The MC tutors who had stayed until the end worked together with Ms. Song and Dr. Price to quickly clean up and put things away. It was all done in minutes thanks to the incredible teamwork of the Mississippi College Writing Center. I will always be grateful that the tutors at Mississippi College work so well together.