Randolph-Macon College student Helen Alvarez ’21 is an English major and writing and education minor—and a published author. She recently completed a January Term (J-term) course, Feature Writing, in which students learned how to write articles and submit them to magazines.

The course was taught by Seth Clabough ’98, executive director of the Higgins Academic Center, director of the Communication Center, and an assistant professor of English. Clabough designed the Feature Writing course to be project-based and reflect the real-world process of trying to get work published. In addition to exploring publishing opportunities, the class also met with writers and editors who were invited to campus to share their expertise.

Building Relationships
Alvarez’s article, “Randolph-Macon College’s LGBTQ+ LLC: A Landing Pad for LGBTQ Students,” which sheds light on campus housing that affects transgender and non-binary people, was published in RVA Magazine, a digital and print magazine. “It feels amazing” to be recognized for her writing, says Alvarez. “It is a huge honor to be published by RVA Magazine.”

Clabough’s course showed Alvarez that there are lots of steps to writing a feature article. “Many of the editors we talked to don’t see writers face-to-face very often, but they send lots of emails back and forth,” she says. “The writers then edit their articles based on the suggestions provided by the editor. That’s why it’s good to build a strong relationship with an editor.”

Jumping In
“The advantage of taking a J-term course is that you can focus on one or two classes intently,” says Alvarez, who plans a career as an English teacher. “We jumped right into the writing process: We became feature writers. You don’t have to juggle a lot of classes at a time during J-term, and that allows you to fully immerse yourself.”