The generous financial support from University and College Advisory Board member, Jennifer Simpson (CAS 2000), and her Psalm 103 Foundation aim to help the Writing Program fulfill its mission of supporting students’ development as writers and fostering a deeper culture of writing in departments and programs throughout CAS and other undergraduate schools and colleges. This financial support enables the creation of departmental and programmatic writing plans and resources to support faculty development on the teaching of writing; provides writing internship experiences for advanced social science undergraduates; funds the Simpson Undergraduate Writing Fellowships; and contributes to celebrating undergraduate student writing at Boston University.
Jennifer’s support has helped make writing and the teaching of writing across the College more visible and prominent. Our writing plans with the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience, the Economics department, and the Mathematics & Statistics department have initiated curricular transformations including the creation of new writing-intensive courses, expanded pedagogical resources for faculty teaching writing, and more focused resources for student writers in the discipline. For more on the Writing Plans, visit here.
In Summer 2024, the Summer Social Science Writing Internship Program (SWIP) had its inaugural cohort of undergraduate students who worked in one of BU’s social science research centers (CISS, CFD, or CMC). The internship gives undergraduates hands-on experience writing and learning about specific areas of social science research and scholarship. Supported by both their center directors and a writing faculty workshop leader, the student interns write profiles of researchers, summaries of the Center’s research, social media posts, news and reports on the Center’s work, and participate in the center’s scholarly activity. In weekly writing workshops, the student interns share their independent writing projects, practice peer review, and learn how social scientists communicate to both scholarly and general audiences through different writing genres. Student writing projects from the summer internship led to successful UROP proposals, Senior Honors Theses, and publications in BU outlets. Read more about this opportunity and the work of our interns here.
Formerly known as the Tutoring Writing in the Disciplines program, the renamed Simpson Undergraduate Writing Fellowship has been instrumental in providing writing support to students. Since 2018, the program has conducted more than 2,500 writing tutoring sessions in ten CAS departments and programs. Each year, approximately 20 students earn the fellowship, undertaking mentoring and leadership roles that are invaluable preparation for graduate school and employment in the students’ majors. Read more about the Simpson Undergraduate Writing Fellowship here. Students can apply for the fellowship here.