Our Partners

While CSWIM Partners provide academic and curricular support in written, oral, and visual communication, they also provide general support and a sense of community and collaboration. They are humans with experience at Pomona College who are ready and willing to be there to support their peers. 

What CSWIM Partners Do

Writing 

Students can come to the CSWIM with writing of any kind and at any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming to final polishing. CSWIM Partners offer one-on-one collaborative consultations on writing across the disciplines. 

Speaking

At Pomona, dialogic, conversational learning is central, and CSWIM Partners support speaking by helping peers with formal and public presentations. They also help students prepare to enter and lead class discussions. 

Attached Partners

Faculty across the college can request to work with a dedicated CSWIM Partner for their course. Attached Partners collaborate with the faculty member they’re paired with to support students in one specific class across multiple assignments. The time commitment varies based on the demands of the course and assignment deadlines. Attached Partners communicate with the faculty member about the role they will play and set their own schedules for meetings with students.

Training and Time Commitment

All of our Partners are hired for their openness to new ways of thinking and engaging, and for their ability to listen and read thoughtfully and sensitively. The first semester of their employment they take English 87: Introduction to Writing Studies and Pedagogy, a seminar in rhetoric, pedagogy, forms of communication, institutions, and power.  They also attend regular trainings and staff meetings focused on a wide variety of topics to strengthen their work as a Partner. Partners typically work two two- or three-hour shifts per week in the CSWIM, and many also work as Attached Partners to ID1 sections and other courses.

Hiring Timeline and Process

CSWIM Partners include students majoring in almost every department, and every Partner works with writing and other projects from all different disciplines. Partners are peer readers, listeners, and mentors. We look for students who can reflect thoughtfully on the process of writing and communication and can talk about that process with their peers. Partners are trained to think in nuanced and inclusive ways, to help students navigate the various and sometimes contradictory demands of communicating in college, and to help peers realize their own voices, goals, and style.

Each spring, we begin the recruitment and hiring of a new cohort of Partners for the following academic year. In February, an email goes out to all students inviting them to apply, and we solicit nominations from faculty and staff across the College. The CSWIM also hosts an open house for interested candidates to learn more about the role and application process. Due to the intensive training process involved in the first year of working as a CSWIM Partner, we especially encourage applications from rising sophomores and juniors with the hope that they will be able to continue in the role for the rest of their time at Pomona. Rising seniors may also apply.

As part of your application, you’ll provide:

• a cover letter, including name of two faculty references (Pomona or 5C)
• your resume
• a writing sample with responses to short reflection questions

Keep in touch with us on Instagram @cswimstagram or email cswim@pomona.edu for more application details.

Applications are reviewed by a hiring committee of senior staff and CSWIM Partners, and candidates will be contacted by late March to hear if they have advanced to the interview stage. Interviews are conducted in time for us to extend offers before the fall course registration deadline, since all new Partners will need to register for the mandatory training course, ENGL 87: Introduction to Writing Studies and Pedagogy.