Potter College News

When I applied to Western Kentucky University as a dual biology and English major, I thought my undergraduate research experience would come from the sciences, not from the arts. I was glad to be proven wrong. The Naylor Workshop on Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies is an annual research conference hosted in York, Pennsylvania for any undergraduate student interested in researching writing studies. This intense weekend is marked by a proposal, a collaborative narrowing down of your research question, and the culmination of a presentation to other participants. 

My Naylor journey started in the spring of 2025. Dr. Jessi Thomsen sent out an email to the English majors, asking if anyone was interested in research. She then worked with us to help pinpoint issues we thought needed research and develop this interest into a research proposal. The Naylor Workshop has its own form for prospective students to fill out and submit, which can be downloaded from their website. It includes sections such as “Describe the need your research and/or innovation might fill” and “What research methods might you use to answer your research question and/or to pilot and assess your innovation?” I found these questions nerve-wracking because I had never dived into my topic before; I had no research methods. Dr. Thomsen repeatedly assured us that these proposals are not looking for a complete thesis project, but rather a project you are passionate about and have the potential to complete. The proposal was due over the summer, giving me plenty of time to fill it out. I proposed to create some sort of materials, possibly a book, to help English language learner (ELL) students be more aware of their rights. A large goal of the Naylor conference is to advance social justice and literacy, meaning my project suited the conference perfectly. My Naylor acceptance email came in mid-June and from then on it was all about preparing for the conference. 

Before school started back, Dr. Thomsen had shared her flight info to the participants. Most of us booked the same flight as her but several students also chose to fly individually from Nashville to York. Transportation was a large concern for me. As a student without a car, I was worried about how to get from Bowling Green to Nashville. But when it comes to the WKU English department student body, we are always willing to help each other out. Several students I had shared classes with were also attending Naylor, so I felt comfortable reaching out and asking if anyone was available to carpool. One friend agreed and we had a lively and fun two-hour ride to Nashville at seven in the morning. Another concern among the participants was the cost of travel, food, board, etc. All attendants of Naylor stay in a hotel room free of charge and nearly every meal is covered (barring lunch on Saturday and dinner on Sunday). As for travel, Naylor also provides participants with a $150 travel stipend and more can be requested if needed. Western also agreed to help fund our group’s travel through reimbursement checks.

The 11^th annual Naylor Workshop on Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies was held on the weekend of September 26^th, 2025. Some of the other participants and I as well as Dr. Thomsen, who was attending as a mentor, took a flight to Baltimore, Maryland where we met with participants from other colleges. As a group, we took a charter bus organized by the director of Naylor, Dr. Dominic Dellicarpini, and drove for another hour before arriving in York, Pennsylvania. The faculty who knew each other from previous conferences jumped into conversation, discussing what they were teaching and how they had approached getting students involved.  The mentors were also immediately welcoming to the students. One mentor was filming content while we drove and briefly mentioned it was because none of their university English department interns were able to attend. I then mentioned that I was doing something similar as an intern for WKU’s English department and she was eager to learn how our internships worked and talk about possible content together. She began telling me personal stories that made us both laugh. As an extrovert, I was comfortable and felt welcomed.

Once arriving in York, I was impressed by the change in architecture and the beauty of the city. We arrived before the official 5pm start time, so my friends from WKU and I headed out to a local coffee shop. After that, we changed into our business casual clothes and headed down to the lobby to meet the rest of the 2025 attendees. When meeting, I found it difficult to distinguish between the faculty, the graduate students and the undergraduate students in attendance. I think, while confusing, this is representative of what Naylor is: not a hierarchy, but a group trying to help each other find and pursue their passions. More than once, I saw someone’s face light up and their jaw drop in surprised happiness at running into a past participant or other mentor.

After thirty minutes we finally made our way into the grand ballroom, decorated with beautiful chandeliers, fancy silverware and snow-white tablecloths. At these tables, we were sorted into smaller groups, which we would be working with for the whole weekend. My group consisted of five participants and three mentors. Throughout dinner, we did introductions and icebreakers which helped me to better understand my group members. After our meal, we were introduced to important figures in the Naylor community, two of which had previously published an article about the importance of undergraduate research and the sense of belonging that is generated by undergraduate research. My favorite quote by Dr. J. Michael Rifenburg, one of the speakers, was “I think of Naylor as an airport. You don’t go to the airport; you use the airport to get somewhere. Naylor is your [academic] airport.” This resonated with me because throughout the rest of the conference, I was given countless ideas about how I could turn my proposal into a project that I could feasibly do with my resources. Each conversation helped me to understand where I was starting and where I wanted to get. The plenary speakers also gave us advice on how to continue our research in the future by finding a mentor at your home institution: “don’t be afraid to say what you need and don’t be afraid to have multiple mentors.” One graduate student even shared that his advisor appreciated his continuous “nagging”. The mentors also suggested that we not be afraid to look for a mentor outside our major or concentration, as that’s the reason we have gen eds. After the official meeting was dismissed, both students and mentors went up to the penthouse lookout to have conversation in a more fun and casual atmosphere.

The second day at Naylor started with breakfast at the Lafayette Clubhouse. Participants gave general introductions to the conference as a whole: name, college, major, and project. I found the introductions interesting because there were a lot more majors present than I expected: English, biology, philosophy, communications, engineering, political science, etc. The Naylor conference is not to welcome English majors, but to welcome any major that wants to pursue a literacy or communications project. Like most conversations between academics, we spiraled off into alternating and tangential points – most notably being a conversation about imposter syndrome and how we all experience some version of it. This conversation put the relationship between Naylor attendees and mentors in perspective. We all felt a little out-of-place and unsure, but we were all selected for a reason because we all add value. After the introductions, we broke out into our groups. Here, we further discussed our projects and gave each other advice. Another thing I really liked about the Naylor conference was that while the mentors were our main source of advice, participants were also heavily encouraged to provide insight and resources for each other.

After the talk with our group specific mentors, we were able talk to other mentors one-on-one. This was something I found incredibly helpful because while the mentors of my group helped me focus on what effect I wanted my project to have, the mentors I talked to one-on-one helped me figure out how I could realistically move forward. In my first break out session, I was advised on how to narrow my scope from writing a book, which is hard and takes a lot of time, to writing index card style documents that could be handed out in their designated setting (courthouse, doctor’s office, etc.). After lunch, when we took a break to explore some of the city, we had another breakout session. This time, my project evolved beyond creating my own documents to analyzing pre-existing documents, which is a lot more accessible. In one day, my project went from using common language to write a book about legal rights for ELL speakers to analyzing already available documents and finding ways they can be improved to better suit their communities.

Many projects at Naylor concerned humanitarian issues. Before dinner, speakers from Morales' Kitchen, a local catering company and social justice advocates taught us how to create empanaditas to be served to the homeless community. We also created “we are” poems instead of “I am” poems to celebrate our time in the Naylor community. These activities were fun and a nice break from the project-oriented schedule for the rest of the day. After dinner, a few of us went to the local arcade to play games before heading back to the hotel to finish our posters. The end goal of the Naylor workshop is to produce a poster with all your project info that is then presented to the other participants. Naylor provided us with several templates for posters, which I found very helpful because it gave me a starting point when it came to presenting my project.  

The connections I made at Naylor, though made quickly, were still quite strong. Upon returning to the hotel, a friend from another university and I spent another couple of hours talking and working on our posters. After finishing our projects, and inducting a mentor into our conversation, we then talked until early in the morning.

On our last day, I turned in my poster to be printed, packed up my bags, and had breakfast with my friends at the Lafayette Club. Starting at 10:30am, the first group’s posters were presented. I found the presentations very interesting because they were set up in a gallery walk style, not given one-by-one. We all had sticky note pads and if there were any ideas or resources we wanted to give to other attendees, we could write them on the sticky notes and place them on the wall around the posters. While presenting, I was able to work into a rhythm that allowed me to comfortably give my presentation and develop how I wanted to present my project. Some of the notes I was given were about resources, some were about further questions they thought related to my project, and some were compliments about the importance of my project. On top of adding sticky notes, attendees would ask us questions or verbally provide advice. It was incredible to listen to everyone’s passionate projects. I also found that, when I gave advice, I wasn’t sure whether I was really being helpful or not, but the other person always found it worthwhile or interesting.

After the poster sessions, we had lunch and then left in a charter bus for the airport. Leaving York was bittersweet because in such little time it became an important place for me. If there is one thing I would absolutely recommend to the students of WKU, even those outside of the English department, it would be to attend the Naylor workshop.