Teach High School Students
Teach with a Community Organization
Teach Columbia University Students
Pioneer your own location!
High School Students
Double Discovery Center
Lerner Hall 306, Columbia University Morningside Heights campus
A Columbia University organization which enables young people historically underrepresented in higher education to pursue their educational aspirations and works to remove racial, gender, age, and religious barriers. Double Discovery offers tutoring and college prep courses for New York City high school students. CA/T faculty teaching teams collaborate with DDC coordinators to create Saturday workshop lesson plans in creative writing, essay writing, and grammar. Teachers also assist in organizing an end-of-semester reading of student work for family and friends.
Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts
215 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10026
A New York City magnet school whose students, grades 9 to 12, have particular aptitude for the arts. Courses additional to standard curriculum include instrumental music, theatre, dance, fine art, and culinary art. CA/T instructors function as featured instructors in Literature classrooms, facilitating a comprehensive lesson plan on creative writing, including exercises in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. CA/T faculty teaching teams have create their own lessons and writing exercises, while enjoying the support of Wadleigh instructors, who aid in classroom management.
Community Organizations
Gilda’s Club
195 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014
Named for its founder, comedian Gilda Radner, who lived with ovarian cancer until her death in 1989, Gilda’s Club NYC offers a place where men, women and children living with cancer – and their families and friends – can join together to build social and emotional support as a supplement to medical care. Oftentimes, workshop participants use this opportunity as a time of sharing and personal healing. CA/T teaching teams lead a workshop of club members, with writing exercises and lessons on poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, with themes of emotional expression. Teachers are also free to organize reading showcases and/or printed packets of student work.
Common Ground
505 Eight Avenue, 15th Floor, New York NY 10018
Common Ground is a pioneer in the development of supportive housing and other research-based practices that end homelessness. The organization builds affordable environments to foster respectful and supportive relationships among all members of their communities. CA/T teaching teams create workshop lesson plans focused on personal expression through poetry and prose. Workshop participants usually have a range of education backgrounds, so primer lessons on technique are essential. Teachers are also free to organize reading showcases and/or printed packets of student work.
Veteran’s Hospital, Bronx NY
130 West Kingsbridge Road, Bronx NY 10468
As a part of the United States’ comprehensive system of assistance for veterans, the Bronx VA serves as a place of rehabilitation and health education for military veterans of every branch and all walks of life. CA/T teaching teams partner with mental and physical rehabilitation coordinators to teach handicapped veterans, those recovering from treatments and surgeries, and several terminal patients. CA/T faculty must be willing to teach classes that focus on basic topics such as “Images,” “Memory,” or “Story-Telling,” that encourage cognitive thought and explore writing as therapy. Teachers are also free to organize reading showcases and/or printed packets of student work.
Columbia University Students
> INTRO
Dodge and Kent halls, Columbia University Morningside Heights campus
*Prerequisite for teaching INTRO:
Classes are non-credit writing workshops and seminars for Columbia students, including both undergrads and SoA students interested in exploring writing instruction outside their discipline. INTRO classes are offered in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or multi-genre. Instructors create their course descriptions and design their syllabi, and may co-teach with other CA/Ts. (Students in other MFA programs occasionally teach courses in screenwriting, playwriting, or visual arts.)
> Columbia Veterans Workshop
Kent Hall, Columbia University Morningside Heights campus
*Prerequisite for teaching with the CVW:
A program founded in 2010, this workshop is geared specifically to Columbia University students and members of the New York City community who have served in the armed forces. Level of proficiency ranges from novice writers to undergraduate and graduate level writing students. Teachers are expected to create lesson plans regarding elements of style and craft in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, with a heavy emphasis on in-class writing and workshopping. Teachers are also free to organize reading showcases and/or printed packets of student work.
The Program in Narrative Medicine, Columbia University School of Physicians & Surgeons
Kent Hall, Columbia University Morningside Heights campus
*Prerequisite for teaching with the CVW:
Narrative Medicine fortifies clinical practice with the narrative competence to recognize, absorb, metabolize, interpret, and be moved by the stories of illness. Through narrative training, the Program in Narrative Medicine helps doctors, nurses, social workers, and therapists to improve the effectiveness of care by developing the capacity for attention, reflection, representation, and affiliation with patients and colleagues. CA/T instructors work with Narrative Medicine program teachers to construct lessons specific to poetry or fiction, aimed at heightening emotional understanding through the interpretation of classic works and the creation of new works.
> Undergraduate Dojo
Dodge Hall, Columbia University Morningside Heights campus
A bimonthly meeting for any Columbia University student who has an idea for a novel, short story, article, or collection of poems. CA/T instructors co-lead brainstorming sessions, give advice, and guide students through any stage or iteration of their project.
Pioneer your own location!
We are enthusiastic about our faculty receiving the best possible personal learning experience. For this reason, CA/T encourages all of its Artist/Teachers to expand the program and create new teaching opportunities. Please come to your CA/T coordinators with any ideas, or any schools or community organizations you think would benefit from our education partnership. Coordinators can explore new teaching locations with you, in order to extend and establish services for future years. As a CA/T location pioneer, you have the unique opportunity to build the program from the ground up!