The Barnard Writing Fellows Program Celebrates Its 10-Year Anniversary
Survey Results Show That the Writing Fellows Have Benefited From the Program In Careers

Contact: Petra Tuomi, The Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907

New York, N.Y., November 15, 2002— The Barnard Writing Fellows Program celebrated its 10th anniversary on November 9 with 22 former participants joining for the first-ever reunion at the new Vagelos Alumnae Center for a panel discussion on how the program has affected their lives and careers.

Nancy Piore, founder of the Writing Fellows Program, said that the Fellows, according to a survey she conducted, have ventured into all different types of careers, from journalism to investment banking to law. According to Piore, the survey looked at the ways in which being a Writing Fellow had affected the work and lives of the participants of the program. Nearly all graduates credited the Writing Fellows Program for sparking their passion for writing and many had pursued careers in writing or teaching. The Fellows reported that their enhanced writing skills had greatly benefited them in their professional and post-graduate lives, no matter what career path they had chosen.

The guests were welcomed by President Judith Shapiro, who said in her remarks: "This program is at the heart of what makes Barnard great. The program is dear to my heart, and one of my goals here is to fully endow all stipends."

The reunion brought together Writing Fellows from as far as Kentucky, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, including Alison Sparks Stavchansky, original director of the program in 1992, and the current director Pamela Cobrin.

Writing Fellows are specially selected and trained Barnard undergraduates who work with their peers to strengthen student writing in all disciplines. It is an intensive three-year commitment with an annual stipend of $1,400, during which a Fellow must confer with 15 Barnard students per semester on the style and form of their papers. The writing-intensive courses that use Writing Fellows range from Architecture to Biology to Political Science. Barnard students also have the opportunity to make use of the Erica Mann Jong Writing Center, named for novelist Erica Jong, a Barnard graduate.