May/June 2005 | Home

College Liaison Committee: The New Kid on the Block

by Gwaltney Mountford
STC Associate Fellow

In case you haven't noticed, there are few colleges in our area that have technical communication programs. This would lead us to believe that students in these colleges are unaware of the potential careers in technical communication. Linda Shaltz, President-Elect of the East Bay Chapter, would like to change that. To that end, she asked me to head the College Liaison Committee, chartered with establishing an EBSTC presence on local campuses.

Vision and Goals

Committee members May McKoon, Angelina Nachimuthu, Roz Rogoff, Joy Montgomery, Janet Gray, and I are hard at work to realize that vision.

At our first meeting, we established these goals:

• Gain visibility in area colleges to encourage students to enter the technical communication profession and join STC.
• Bring technical communication experiences to the college curriculum.
• Broaden awareness among students and faculty of the benefits of the technical communication profession and STC.

The Master Plan

Our plan is to contact heads of departments in writing, art, and engineering and set up presentations to their students about careers in technical communication and about how STC can help them develop as technical communicators.

We have so far targeted four colleges to contact for a pilot. And we have created scripts to use when contacting the colleges and meeting with the department heads. We are currently identifying handout material for the students and creating an outline of the presentation. When the handout material is better defined, we will contact the colleges and set up our meetings.

We envision the presentations to be conducted by a panel of writers with differing experiences. We are setting up the criteria for speakers, and soon will be asking for volunteers.

Making a Difference

Everyone on the committee is very excited about this project. We see this as an opportunity to make a difference in our community, in our profession, and in STC.

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