Rachael W. Shah, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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Program Leadership, Engagement
and Service

Program leadership, community engagement, and service are integral parts of my academic life.  Here,  I highlight three engagement initiatives that I have helped shape--and continue to shape me.

Husker Writers

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Husker Writers is a network of college and secondary writing teachers committed to meaningful writing beyond the classroom, including secondary-university writing collaborations and  public writing.  Teachers selected for the program collaboratively plan curriculum with a local non-profit partner or an instructor at a different institution to create opportunities for students to write for and with public audiences. ​ The program launched with 22 teachers, with generous support from the Coordinating Commission on Postsecondary Education. Husker Writers is part of a growing national network of secondary-university writing collaboration programs, including our sister program Wildcat Writers, which I coordinated for six years. 


Nebraska Writing Project 

One of the largest National Writing Project sites, the Nebraska Writing Project hosts a range of youth and community writing programs, teacher professional development opportunities, festivals, and institutes across the state. We also run several grant-funded projects, including partnerships with national parks. Nebraska Writing Project is run in collaboration with an advisory board of 20+ local teachers and a directors' board of 4 local teachers, and new initiatives are driven by teachers' ideas.  

C3WP ARGUMENT WRITING PROGRAM

Through my work with the Nebraska Writing Project, I am involved with our site's College, Career, Community Writing Program (C3WP).  C3WP was launched by a Department of Education grant, and the program originally involved 45 hours of professional development for elementary and secondary teachers in rural and high-need districts on the teaching of argument writing, along with research on effective writing instruction.  Results from a multi-site, controlled study of this work showed a statistically significant positive impact on student writing, and C3WP approaches are spreading in several local school districts and ESU's. ​
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Mural photography by Miah Oren
TEDx photography by Alex Frank