In the fall of 2007 I taught an evening college course at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Such evening courses often serve returning adult students and this course was typically diverse. Ten of the seventeen students were Black, four had home languages other than English (Chinese, Turkish, Spanish, Patois), three were born outside of the United States, fourteen were women, and fourteen were not the traditional college age. At least two had first studied at local community colleges. While the apparent diversity of the room was evident during the first class, it wasn’t until I got the first set of papers and noticed the range of writing strengths that I wondered what, exactly, had brought them to this particular course at this particular moment.
A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric