September 2026 News

Academy Writing Center Offers Tutoring and Assistance

Monday, September 28, 2026

Dr. Sarah Bertekap, Assistant Teaching Professor of English and English Department Head, developed the Indiana Academy’s writing center which opened the fall of 2025. Dr. Bertekap began developing the writing center during her first year at the Academy to help Academy students receive writing-specific tutoring and assistance for any writing-related project.

For the center to be built, she considered where it would be located, how students would be compensated, and how to support writers. During the writing center’s first year, our tutors attended the Secondary School Writing Centers Association annual conference hosted by the University of Connecticut’s Writing Center. Tutors led a workshop alongside Dr. Bertekap titled “Write Now, Panic Never: Supporting College Applications with Writing Retreats” to help other tutors and writing center directors plan writing retreats based on the retreats hosted by the Academy’s center and Dr. Casey Schultz.

Her history of working in writing centers prepared Dr. Bertekap to develop the Academy’s writing center. She served as a writing center tutor during her undergraduate degree and during her Ph.D. program at the University of Connecticut. Her experiences with UConn inspired her to work within academia and wanted our students to have similar working experience.

Dr. Bertekap’s main goal for the writing center is to have more student utilization. Students will lead the social media channel to help market the program to other students. In the spring of 2027, Dr. Bertekap and a select group of students will travel to Meissen, Germany to help Sankt Afra develop their writing center.