The Fount

South Carolina Cadet Medal of Merit

Cadet Capt. Douglas J. Schmid, Political Science major and a native of Arlington, Wisconsin, was awarded the South Carolina Cadet Medal of Merit, by the adjutant general of South Carolina. This award is presented to an outstanding first-class (senior) cadet who exemplifies the traits of leadership, scholastic achievement, conduct and participation in cadet and college activities.

The Lowcountry Writing Project (LWP), housed in the English Department, held its ninth annual Invitational Summer Institute this year. The 13 teachers in attendance, representing grade levels from elementary and middle through secondary and even college, shared proven classroom practices to help students both improve their writing and use writing as a learning tool.

The goal of the LWP is to improve student learning by improving the ways teachers use writing in the classroom; the Summer Institute is the primary means for training outstanding classroom teachers to be outstanding teachers of their peers as well.

Each day featured at least one demonstration of an innovative classroom practice that could be adapted to different disciplines and different grade levels. Topics included "Reading, Writing, and Rubrics," "Improving Confidence with Prewriting Strategies," "Blogging Across the Curriculum," "Responding to Primary Sources through Song," and "Visual Art as a Medium to Teach Writing." Participants also designed classroom-based research projects to pursue during the upcoming school year, and they engaged daily in small-group and whole-class activities to help improve their own writing, practicing the strategies they could share with their colleagues and their students.

The LWP will continue to offer inservice programs throughout the school year, with Summer Institute graduates leading the programs. Plans for the 2007-2008 school year include graduate-level classes on Travel Writing, Creative Nonfiction Writing, and Writing Children's Books. Workshops are also available for individual schools or school districts.

A limited number of programs are available for students as well. Participants in the 2007 Young Writers' Camp will have a public reading in September at the Mount Pleasant Barnes and Noble, and an expanded summer camp is in the works for 2008.