The Hill School’s Writing Fellows Program will has faced major changes for the 2017-2018 school year. Writing Fellows will now be placed in different dorms during study hall.

The Writing Fellows are a group of Hill students who help other students through the writing process.

Since the program’s existence, students of all forms could go to the Writing Center to receive individual aide on their essays and term papers.

This year begins Mark Pearson’s second year as the director of the Writing Center and he believes it is time to make improvements.

“We wanted to give students easy, direct access to writing fellows,” Pearson said.

Pearson notes that in past years, the Writing Fellows Program had difficulty drawing a crowd.

He believes students will no longer have an excuse to not ask a writing fellow for help now that the fellows are just a few steps away.

“Having writing fellows circulate throughout multiple dorms gives students an opportunity to seek help where they feel most comfortable,” Sophia BenJeddi ‘18, a writing fellow said.

The program has been adjusted to be a greater support system for students. Writing Fellows will now be “on duty” in different dorms throughout the week.

One of 17 senior writing fellows will be in both Dell Village and Foster on Sunday, Rolfe and Wendell on Monday, and Upper School East and West on both Wednesday and Thursday. A Writing Fellow will be stationed in the dorm’s common room for the entirety of study hall.

“Our goal as writing fellows is to help as many students as we can become better writers,” Quinlan McDonnel ’18, a Writing Fellow said. “If students are more apt to come to us in the dorm than visit the writing center, we’re happy to accommodate them.”

Pearson believes the students will benefit from this change as they will learn the philosophy of the Writing Center.

“The philosophy of the writing center is that writing is a process,” Pearson said.

Pearson also thinks the students’ writing ability will improve through these changes.

Pearson said that no matter what field you go into, “everyone needs to know how to write,” and he hope that these changes will make a positive impact on the writing ability at the Hill School.