Marilyn Valentino
Lorain County Community College, Ohio

I began hearing about the Midwest Region from Linda Houston when I was serving on an Ohio Board for Two-Year Colleges.  She kept urging me to start attending, but I told her I had state and national conferences to attend and not enough time or money to go to any others.  However, if you know Linda, you know she persisted, so I found myself driving with her to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to attend one of our conferences with a bag of apples for sustenance.   It was also Paul Bodmer  from the Midwest who encouraged me to write up one of my presentations for TETYC.   A few years later, I coordinated the Midwest TYCA conference in Cleveland with Jay Wooten (another CCCC Chair from the Midwest).   Then I was asked to work on the Guidelines for Two-Year College Faculty document on the national level, and I was hooked.

I always learn something to take back to my classes—no matter which convention.  The last one in Des Moines was about using the topic of food to generate writing, and we even had some samples to enjoy.  But it’s the discussions between sessions, the camaraderie over dinner, the knowledge that even when you attend the conference by yourself that you’ll link up with old friends or make new ones—that’s the joy of our region.  We can be assured that someone will organized a panel or a workshop and include many of us who are interested. 

I’m pleased that I was one of the many beaming faces when we walked in the room at the NCTE convention to see the ice sculptures for the TYCA National inauguration.  We had made it nationally, but it all starts with the regions and all the good work people do for our students.   I’m trying to pay it forward by continuing to invite others, full- and part-time, to join panels for the next Midwest conference.