The College of Education, Emma Kirsch

Spotlight on… The College of Education Emma Kirsch Early Childhood and Elementary Education Major

When she came to SVSU in Fall 2015, Emma Kirsch knew she wanted to give back—and to become like those supportive individuals who helped her to thrive in middle and high school. That insight eventually led Kirsch, who is from Clinton Township, Michigan, to declare herself an early childhood and elementary education major. Kirsch, however, was wise enough to seek out advantages beyond the classrooms of the College of Education. She became a member of the twentieth class of Roberts Fellows, a group focused on developing leadership abilities from a global perspective. She also took two faculty-led study abroad trips, one to India and another to Argentina, both focused on education in foreign countries. Among many other extra-curriculars, she cofounded Pie Club (a student favorite), served as vice president for Forever Red with a focus on fundraising and student scholarships, and led summer-orientation groups two years in a row. Writing has also been a huge part of this May 2020 graduate’s SVSU experience. Kirsch worked as a tutor in the Diane Boehm Writing Center for three years beginning in Winter 2017, and although she found herself growing as both a writer and as an individual through her work in the Writing Center, she really found her footing in the Community Writing Centers (CWCs). The CWCs operate two times a month at both the Butman-Fish Library in Saginaw and at the Wirt Library in Bay City. Funded respectively by the Saginaw Community Foundation and the Bay Area Community Foundation, these centers are the first of their kind in the state of Michigan and provide residents with workshops on a variety of writing topics as well as one-on-one consultations on writing. Kirsch not only tutored and held workshops at both locations, but she also served as a coordinator at these CWCs for a year and a half. Some of her favorite sessions at the CWCs include workshopping a cookbook that a man wrote for his family and working with various storytellers of all ages, including a novelist in the third grade. For Kirsch, the common thread between her experiences was the value of hearing people's stories: “It’s easy (and dangerous) to make quick assumptions, but being open-minded and sharing in conversation with all sorts of people has been a significant lesson I’ve learned at the CWCs. This lesson will translate well into my career as an educator because open-mindedness is where discovery can really begin, and that’s something I want to practice with my students.” This is a clear departure from someone who once thought of writing as just involving essays and papers. Kirsch’s time in the CWCs also reminded her that writing is always hard work. The most challenging sessions involved individuals who were passionate about their writing but unwilling to listen to her feedback. Working with someone on their writing, she knows, is a collaborative act by necessity and requires both parties to be engaged. This lesson about audience will also serve her well in her future career—even when her students aren’t present—because “to write is to communicate. Teachers are responsible for not only family communication, but communication with the administration and students.” As a teacher, she expects she will also need to write a grant or make notes of student progress, two very different forms of writing. She also notes that “an essential part of being a teacher is self-reflection to identify the efficacy of your lessons and to help you grow and adapt.” She credits her education classes for emphasizing the importance of such self-reflective writing. Undoubtedly, her ability to reflect on those experiences through writing in her classes, at the CWCs, in the campus Writing Center, and in her various on-campus engagements have paid

off. Kirsch twice won the Braun Award for Excellence in Writing in the College of Education, received the 2019 Tutor Leadership Award from the East Central Writing Centers Association, was the recipient of an SVSU Mayme Hamilton Award for Tutoring Excellence for her work in the campus Writing Center, and was honored withaYWCA Great Lakes Bay Emerging Leader Award. She has also presented at six state and regional conferences on a variety of concerns, including community writing centers, trauma-informed education strategies, non-native English speakers and fundraising initiatives. Although Kirsch’s future plans have hit a bit of a bump due to COVID-19 school closings, she remains characteristically pragmatic. She intends to stay in the area for a few years and work as a teacher before embarking on international travel—and writing will undoubtedly be part of the journey and the destination.