AWAC Mentoring Committee: Activities, Events, Support, and Ways to Get Involved
AWAC’s Mentoring Committee has a lot to offer! Check out the list below for an overview of the kinds of events and activities we will be offering this academic year, as well as other ways to connect or engage.
Virtual Workshops
Each academic year, Mentoring Committee hosts 3-4 virtual workshops. Attendees can expect workshops prepared specifically for AWAC. These workshops feature a wide range of WAC-relevant topics, with recent workshops exploring how WAC programs can enact cultural change in institutions, how WAC programs might engage in coalition-building to promote advocacy, and how WAC programs can adopt leadership roles in navigating AI literacy. One of the virtual workshops each year also hosts the winners of the Exemplary WAC Program Awards, who share their experiences with shaping their award-winning programs.
Keep an eye out for info soon about AWAC’s first virtual workshop of 2026-2027.
AWAC Reads
AWAC Reads is a reading group that aims to create a space for collegial conversation about WAC and writing scholarship (while hopefully encouraging all of us to squeeze some of that reading into our schedules!). Once or twice a semester, AWAC’s Mentoring Committee selects an article to read, then organizes and facilitates a Zoom discussion about the selected article.
AWAC Summer Reads, a companion program, focuses on a monograph or edited collection, which is read over the summer and discussed in early fall.
Our next AWAC Reads for Fall 2026 will also be announced soon.
Summer Mentoring Program
The Summer Mentoring Program pairs professionals in one-on-one relationships that not only offer mentoring, but also create opportunities for cross-institutional connections among like-minded peers. This mentoring program is open to all professionals in writing and communication studies.
Participants have their choice of focus areas, which include many different disciplines in addition to a myriad of pursuits such as program development, curriculum design, writing centers, first-year writing, research/publication, career development, incorporating DEI, and more.
Mentors and mentees connect over Zoom or via email for a total of three hours, once in June, once in July, and once in August.
Watch for the Summer Mentoring Program sign-up in mid-to-late Winter/Spring 2027.
AWAC PODs
AWAC PODs are self-forming and self-supporting small groups of WAC administrators who meet on a regular schedule to discuss program development, problems, successes, project development, assessment, student recognition ceremonies, and other such WAC initiatives.
Check out the AWAC website for more information.
AWAC Board of Consultants
The AWAC Board of Consultants are AWAC members who have expertise in WAC program administration and pedagogy, and have been vetted by the AWAC Mentoring Committee and AWAC Executive Committee. These consultants may be contacted with invitations to lead WAC workshops, review WAC programs, and promote WAC program development.
The consultants set their own fees. AWAC provides this list as a service to the field and does not directly benefit from consultations arranged between Consultant Board members and the institutions that hire them. Those interested in utilizing the Board of Consultants service can either email the board member directly or complete our Consultant Request Form, both found on the AWAC website.
Questions about Mentoring Committee? Want to get involved? Reach out to committee chair Jackie Kauza at wolfstar.