by Maryia Spirydonava and Melina Dallastella
Bobby Pelphrey, Assistant Director of the Writing and Communications Center, has over 15 years of experience helping students improve their writing skills, and has earned Master’s degrees in both English Composition and Secondary Education. Although he has earned Master’s degrees in both English Composition and Secondary Education, when he first started his undergraduate journey he had dreams of becoming a medical nurse.
After an unfortunate car accident that resulted in his hospitalization, Pelphrey was forced to reevaluate his career goals. Spending so much time in the hospital made him realize that it wasn’t the place that he wanted to spend every day of the rest of his life, so he transferred to a different school in order to pursue a career as a biology teacher in order to take advantage of all of the science courses he already had credit for. After meeting an influential professor who recognized his talents as a writer, Pelphrey realized that his passion was in writing. He then set out to make a career as a writing teacher.
Pelphrey says that about 70-80% of the people in the STEM field wish that they took more writing courses. He says that many people do not realize that they will have to write papers in their careers, which will be presented to different types of readers, from bosses to shareholders. For this reason, Stevens offers workshops to improve writing, such as the Wednesday Workshop Series and the Creative Writing Workshops with Professor Billy Middleton.
Pelphrey feels that many students who are interested in science and technology have only been taught to embrace their talent in major-specific courses, while the humanities get left to the wayside. He says it’s important to embrace imaginative thinking and to think outside the box in creative ways, not just the technical way. Although he embraces creative thinking, he also emphasizes how important it is for students to perfect technical writing. Because no one forces the students to develop a strong background in technical writing, it is up to them to seek help from professionals at the WCC. However, WCC is not just for students struggling with writing. CAL has a series of different genres such as creative writing, film, and graphic novels; students can absorb new information while not having to participate in a formal class.
Since he spends so much time helping students with their writing, he says that his favorite part about Stevens has to be the students. He particularly enjoys sharing his “geeky” interests with students who enjoy playing video games and reading comic books. In fact, when asked if there was anything that he could change about Stevens, he immediately thought about his students, wishing they had more places to collaborate with one another on projects and writing tasks. He believes that developing a strong writing background is a very important part of pursuing a career in STEM.
