PULLMAN, Wash. – Speaker Crit Callebs will inspire faculty and others to consider their role as mentors to students and the place of storytelling in the academy at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5, in the CUB junior ballroom and via videostreaming at other Washington State University locations. Light refreshments will be served.
Callebs also will facilitate an invitation-only workshop about mentoring on Thursday, Oct. 6. To attend or arrange for students to attend, contact the WSU Writing Program at 509-335-7959 or writing.program@wsu.edu.
Part of the Writing Program Speaker Series, both events will be delivered via AMS to Spokane-SAC 145A, Vancouver-VMMC 204, Tri-Cities-West 101A and Everett-GWH 370.
Callebs is a mentor and Native American storyteller of Eastern Band Cherokee and Appalachian descent who lives on the Yakama Nation Indian Reservation in Washington. He is the founder and executive director of the Peacekeeper Society, a Native nonprofit that promotes the traditional art of mentoring. Learn more at http://critcallebs.com.
About the faculty presentation, Callebs said, “Elders are the true mentors for many families and communities. They are the anchors of stability and fountains of knowledge that guide others as they make their way in life.”
Concerning the workshop, he said, “Mentoring, on one level, is simply the sharing of resources, knowledge and skills to help someone learn how to become better at what they are doing. On another level it is about helping someone regain dignity, take agency in life and find one’s true gift. We all have the ability to mentor and speak life into those who need it.”
The Writing Program Speaker Series invites educators into discussions to explore innovative ways of designing writing assignments and evaluating written work and to reflect more generally on their work as teachers of writing within their disciplines.
The series will host a brown bag presentation and conversation, “Powerful, Flexible, Easy-to-Use Approaches and Technologies for Peer Learning and Writing-to-Learn Assignments,” at noon Thursday, Nov. 3, in CUE 305A.
For more information, contact Xyanthe Neider, WSU Writing Program, at xneider@wsu.edu.