PLF Application Form for Summer 2024 and AY 2024-2025

UWC PLF: Peer Learning Facilitators are hired as academic apprentice personnel – and their work is very similar to demands of a TAship. This means that PLFs hired by the UWC should be able to prioritize the hours they have committed to work at the Undergraduate Writing Center. Most PLFs work about 8-12 hours per week, and the minimum commitment is 6 hours per week. PLFs may also be asked several times per quarter to conduct workshops for Office of Residential Life, the Dashew Center, professors and TAs, and student organizations. It’s important to keep in mind that our busiest times of the quarter occur when you are also busiest – Weeks 4 and 5; Weeks 8 through 10. In addition, PLFs are part of a team and, as such, are expected to have enough availability that they can substitute for other PLFs occasionally.

UWC PLF: As a PLF, you work one-on-one with students in face-to-face appointments or online appointments throughout the quarter.  Although you may work with the same student more than once, you will most often be working with different students throughout the quarter.

UWC PLFs: PLFs receive on-going training and mentoring.  The training includes an initial orientation and several additional training seminars each quarter.  These seminars are a forum for discussing issues and approaches to tutoring composition effectively. You will learn to read, assess and respond to student writing, help students become more confident about themselves as academic writers, and engage students in collaborative discussions and activities to improve their writing.

The training seminar provides a basis for your work with students, but much of your training will happen as you consult with students about their writing.  To facilitate this “hands-on” learning, you will receive mentoring from more experienced PLFs and from the professional staff.

UWC PLFs:  PLFs work with students from all majors and at all writing levels. Students who visit the Writing Center reflect the UCLA undergraduate community, which is ethnically, linguistically and socio-economically diverse.  Students come to the Writing Center voluntarily, although some may be acting on an instructor recommendation.

UWC PLFs:  PLFs are on-campus employees and cannot work more than 19 hours per week in all on-campus employment. Also, the time commitment expected, as explained above, means that we discourage PLFs from having other employment.

UWC PLFs:  PLFs submit a schedule of their available hours and are then assigned specific shift hours that will not change over the quarter. Student clients sign up online to work with a PLF whose schedule is convenient for them. PLFs can encourage students to sign up to work with them again, but given scheduling constraints, this may not be possible. PLFs will also be working with walk-in appointments, which are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.

UWC PLFs: Peer learning facilitation occurs in the Powell Library Ground Floor study space or in Kaplan A61 (located inside the entryway to the A51 Auditorium),Rieber Hall 162, and online via Zoom. Scheduled appointments last 30 or 50 minutes; walk-in appointments last anywhere from 15 minutes to 50 minutes, depending on when the student arrives and how many other students are waiting to be seen.

UWC PLFs: The UWC invests a great deal in you in training. In addition, becoming an excellent PLF requires more than one quarter. For these reasons, working only in summer or only one quarter in the academic year is not in the best interests of your professional development or the UWC. We will not consider the applications of people who can only commit to one quarter or who only want to work in summer.

UWC PLFs:  PLFs may also be asked to help develop tutoring materials, make classroom visits, represent the UWC at invited workshops and campus functions, and undertake other special projects.

UWC PLFs: You will evaluate your own progress, and more experienced PLFs and the Writing Center Director will provide you with regular feedback and assessment.  We will consider the contributions you have made to the training seminar, evaluate your writing consultation sessions, and examine how well you utilize the support and resources made available to you.  The students you work with and your fellow PLFs will also complete evaluations of your work.