Empty chairs at empty tables at the writing center. The writing center is officially closed for the summer. This last month of school as seniors were on project and underclassmen were preparing for the end of school, the writing center remained open as a beacon of light for students who need literary advice and wanted that final A on that last writing assignment. At times throughout the school year, the writing center was a hub of energy but throughout it all it remained as a place of calm. As two of the three writing interns left, we can testify to the stillness of the writing center but there was still a trickle of students to interrupt our quiet times. In this last month as we conferenced with students to help them become better writers, it became hard to believe that this was only the first year of the writing center’s existence. The writing center has comfortably found its place in Shaker, now it only needs to expand. As our director gets ready for next year’s batch of interns, we’ve been devising plans to extend the reach of the writing center. Those plans include hosting workshops and the addition of an OWL (Online Writing Lab). As we sign off on our senior project and end our time in the writing center, we are excited for its future. We were a part of its inaugural year and helped to build it up, and now we can’t wait to see the soaring heights that the writing center and its interns will reach.-Kathleen and Maria White