Starting in January, the Eyre Writing Center (pronounced “air”) will offer a series of writing classes and drop-in sessions for middle school and high school students.
EWC will hold its Saratoga-based classes downtown at Saratoga CoWorks, 153 Regent St. Its winter/spring term is comprised of two classes: Intro to Writing for students from ages 10-14, and Expos for students from ages 15-18. The courses will start on Jan. 23 and 25, respectively. Classes will also be offered at a second location in Latham.
Jane Chen founded EWC based on the premise that strong writing skills serve as the bedrock for becoming strong thinkers. She said the mission of EWC is to instill the building blocks of good writing early on in students’ lives.
Chen’s professional background did not stem from education. Since graduating from Harvard College cum laude in history with a minor in economics, she has been an investment analyst on Wall Street and in Europe.
But education has always been her passion. Over the last decade, Chen has worked with students on a pro bono basis and has donated to many educational causes. However, it was only in 2018, when a former student berated her for not starting writing courses of her own, that the idea of a school dedicated to writing popped into her head.
“My student told me it was ‘practically criminal’ that I kept my course packs largely to myself,” said Chen. “I was very hesitant to only teach writing because I believed it to be too much of a niche, and I dilly dallied for a year. Finally, I opened up my Filofax and circled the first month in 2020. I promised myself that in January, I will start my writing center.”
She named it the Eyre Writing Center, as she herself was named after the character Jane Eyre.
There was another problem. Writing is not a “scalable” business model.
“I’ve seen academies down in New York City pack 30, even 40, students into a math class. It can be done because at the end of the day, you can grade a calculus test fairly quickly. The answer is either right or wrong,” said Chen. “Writing is too subjective. It’s highly personalized for every student because we write how we think, and we all think differently.”
She said the core question then that EWC aims to solve is: how can we design a curriculum that “scales up” writing? How can we still offer highly personalized attention to our students in a classroom setting?
Chen’s solution is in her curricula.
She has arranged her Intro to Writing curriculum such that the classes would carefully balance general coursework with individualized time between each student and the instructor. For her Expos class, based on Harvard’s mandatory writing seminars focused on expository essay writing, she will be offering virtual one-on-one office hours with vetted instructors on top of weekly classes so that students can drop in to have any piece of written work reviewed.
The other key aspect of EWC is affordability
“The EWC business model has gone through many different iterations,” said Chen. “Pricey one-on-one tutoring session would be more profitable and far less of a time commitment. But that’s not the model I envision for EWC. It must be accessible for all families.”
EWC will hold an open house for Intro to Writing at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23. The open house for Expos will be at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 25. Both will take place at 153 Regent St. All are welcome to attend. Registration will be finalized at the start of the second class the following week.
Prospective students and parents can book online at www.eyrewritingcenter.com/courses. Chen can be reached at jane@eyrewritingcenter.com.
