Pathways to the Future: Poorvu Center Shares Writing Expertise with New Haven High School Seniors
Left to Right: Paula Rawlins and Zoe Frost
Growing up, Zoe Frost was always the person her friends turned to for writing help. Now a junior at Yale College and a Writing Partner in the Poorvu Center, Zoe is sharing her skills to strengthen the writing habits of her peers at Yale and beyond. In October, she joined seven other undergraduate Writing Partners in helping New Haven high school students edit and refine their college application essays.
The idea for this project was sparked in 2024 by Lead Writing Partner Talia Kolodkin, a graduating senior in the Class of 2025 who suggested the Poorvu Center do more to share its writing expertise with the local New Haven community. Paula Rawlins, Associate Director of the Yale College Writing Center in the Poorvu Center, contacted Erin McCarthy King in the Office of New Haven Affairs, who agreed this project could be an impactful initiative through her office’s Pathways program.
The Pathways Initiative connects middle and high school students in New Haven and its surrounding communities with students, faculty, and staff across the university to gain hands-on experience in STEM and the arts at Yale. The program’s infrastructure includes two tracks: Pathways to Science and Pathways to Arts & Humanities. Combined, both tracks attract approximately 2,500 local students every year. Erin is the program manager for the Pathways to Arts & Humanities track and one of her priorities is to increase the number of programs offered to New Haven students throughout the academic year. Developing new partnerships across campus – like the Poorvu Center – is critical in meeting this goal.
“We love working with colleagues across the university to share resources with local students,” Erin explained. “I’m thrilled to have this new partnership with the Poorvu Center that is allowing us to create more opportunities to support New Haven kids.”
A Plan Emerges
For the program to be successful, Paula and Erin agreed that crossover between Pathways and the Poorvu Center was essential. Every summer, Pathways organizes Summer Scholars Programs through each track, which welcomes local high school students to participate in a variety of programming around STEM, the arts, history, and culture at Yale. Undergraduate students are hired as teaching assistants to support the students enrolled in the program, and Paula recognized that this could be the perfect alignment point.
“Our Writing Partners are doing this work because they love helping people with their writing,” she said. “Many of them work with local organizations and want to do more to support New Haven. This collaboration was uniquely special because it bridged their two interests while strengthening the relationship between the city and Yale.”
Paula shared the opportunity to become a Pathways teaching assistant with her team of Writing Partners and introduced the idea of sharing their writing skills with local high school students. Zoe Frost applied and was hired as a teaching assistant for the Pathways to Arts & Humanities Summer Scholars Program this year, serving as the critical link between the two programs.
Left to Right: Writing Partners Soojin Park, Lillian Kibler, Yaprak Damla Yildirim, Zoe Kanter
A Vision Becomes Reality
This fall, local high school seniors applying to college were invited to campus for personalized assistance with their college application essays. The only requirement to register was that they come prepared with working drafts of their essays. Very quickly, all available spots were filled and over two Saturdays in October, twenty-six high school seniors from New Haven traveled to the Poorvu Center to meet one-on-one with a Writing Partner.
The impact of this experience, for both student participants and their mentors, was immediate and profound. A unique aspect of this experience for the Writing Partners was the opportunity to see their thoughts and advice put into action. Many times, Writing Partners provide one-time assistance editing a paper during drop-in hours – often without knowing the end result. In this program, however, the high school students returned two weeks after the initial meeting to share their refined essays and make final revisions.
For Zoe, the experience was a reminder that these essays were not typical assignments – they were keys to unlocking her students’ futures. And she took seriously the trust the high school students placed in her and the other mentors to share their very personal experiences.
Soojin Park and Lillian Kibler
“There was an emotional element to this work that required a different mindset,” Zoe reflected. “It’s a completely different experience than helping a college student write an English paper. This is so much more personal. For me, it was important to remind these kids that their writing is valuable, that what they think and feel is valuable, and that their passions are valuable.”
And for the students, the thoughtful recommendations made by their mentors inspired them to make substantial changes that significantly strengthened their essays. They made the text more personal, worked to prove their words, and developed stronger “hooks” to engage their readers – college admissions officers deciding their future.
“[Soojin] made me feel comfortable and really dug deep into my mind. She helped me brainstorm various things to make my essay better, while keeping a friendly and positive attitude.” - Senior (Metropolitan Business Academy High School)
A Lasting Impact
Given the success of this first program, Paula and Erin hope to continue the momentum with similar programming for New Haven students.
“The college essay is a powerful piece of writing that can really change the direction of a student’s life,” Erin expressed. “After the event, every student I asked about their experience said they received great direction and could see their essays more clearly now. We find real value in continuing to offer this support.”
“Lillian was awesome! She brought so much energy, and I was excited to revise my essay alongside her, even though I was nervous at first. She helped ease a lot of my anxiety from writing the essay. She was also very patient with me, listening to my concerns…” – Senior (Engineering and Science University Magnet School)
While this was a short-duration program, the team hopes the lessons learned will carry well into the future. Paula is hopeful that this experience working with the Poorvu Center helped to raise awareness among these young students that writing resources, like what they received here, are widely available in college. Most universities offer writing support for undergraduate students, and she hopes this experience instilled confidence in them to seek out this support when needed.
“In a way, this program went beyond helping these students with this one assignment,” Paula said. “By learning to find and utilize the resources that are available when they go to college, it is truly setting them up for success.”