A photo of candidate Rebecca Petitti

How would your studies and / or your professional experiences advance the goals of WPA-GO? These goals may be found in the About Me section of WPA-GO’s website: http://wpacouncil.org/wpa-go (no more than 150 words) *

The programmatic focus of my dissertation is inspired by what I saw as unequal levels of instruction at UMass. My goal in understanding what programs do to support digital technology in FYC is to ensure that all students receive equal access to the kinds of critical digital literacies they will need moving forward. At the same time, this focus also centers on graduate instructor experience, ensuring that programs are providing the resources and training needed for these kinds of pedagogies to be successful. Outside of my research, I have made myself available as a resource for new graduate students. As a first-gen student myself, I understand the importance of having formal and informal mentor relationships. In my own education experience, I have had to find and forge many of these relationships without much guidance. As such, I work hard to make these opportunities and experiences transparent and available to all.

What kinds of support do you value as a graduate student and how would you further those forms of support for others through WPA-GO? (no more than 250 words) *

I think it’s first important for graduate students to have support from fellow graduate students, in their own programs and beyond. WPA-GO is a great resource to build upon these support networks, through formal and informal conference events or through social media. I would hope to continue this work by coordinating more conference opportunities for graduate students to engage in, and by branching our online networks, perhaps coordinating with other support networks like NextGen. Beyond fellow graduate students, it’s important to find support from scholars in the field, again, within their own programs and beyond. Having participated in the WPA-GO Mentor program at C’s, I would certainly look to expand upon this program and look for new ways of recruiting participants. Lastly, I think it’s important for graduate students to have general support for the challenges they face, whether those be economic or time-based. While I’m not currently familiar with the organization’s funding, I could imagine opportunities to consider fundraising initiatives to make conference travel more affordable and accessible for graduate students. In thinking about time support, I would look to programs like DBLAC’s virtual writing groups to think about how we might use digital space to broaden support networks. Being spread out across the US and beyond, it’s important to think about how we can best use digital spaces to provide continued support, while also trying to make conferences a space to move these relationships offline.

CWPA pledges to “foster inclusion more generally; promote research into student diversities; promote policies that increase diversity in our membership and in the population of people who administer writing programs; and explicitly act against the structures that cause injustice today,” and WPA-GO is dedicated to supporting this mission. How will your selection to the WPA-GO Graduate Committee advance these goals? Please answer this question by choosing one barrier you identify to meeting these goals in writing studies. How would your work within WPA-GO specifically address this barrier? (no more than 500 words) *

To the WPA-GO Graduate Committee, I bring my perspective and experience as a first-generation student. While this identity is not uncommon, it has greatly shaped the student, researcher, teacher, and person that I am. Likewise, because of my own experiences with higher education, I am a strong advocate for support and mentoring, and, more importantly, finding ways to make these accessible, available, and known to all. One barrier that I think inhibits our ability to achieve these goals is having the ability to navigate the process, and it’s something faced by many students, particularly those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds. Navigating higher education and academia is not easy. There is no clear path from one milestone to the next, and it’s easy to often wonder *if* you’re meeting the expectations and whatever goals you may need to succeed. In WPA-GO I would work to make these processes more transparent to all students. This might involve coordinating virtual roundtables or forums by graduate students or recent PhDs to discuss their experiences. I would look to create a resource database for prospective and current students that includes advice about the various “steps” in graduate school from coursework to comps, dissertation to job market, and everything in between. Having more transparency about what to expect is just one small step toward making higher education more accessible to students who may have previously seen it as unattainable, or for those students who find themselves in need of support and community. While I recognize that I can’t possibly understand every student experience, and that no database can truly encapsulate all the challenges people may face, I do believe having more open discussions can break down the barrier of mystique that seems to cloud certain experiences. I struggled through my undergraduate degree, working near full-time hours in retail while carrying a full-time course load, and not understanding what resources and mentorship was available to me. While I was able to adapt and develop a basic understanding of campus resources and how I might use them, it was not until my time in a Master’s Program that I started better understanding mentorship relationships, programmatic resources, and what it meant to “be” in academia. Even now, as I’m heading into my final year of my PhD, there is still so much of this process that seems unclear. It is from this perspective, and with these experiences, that I would come to my role on the WPA-GO Graduate Committee.