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Maria LoPorto
Professor Holic
ENC 3351
December 9, 2013
Profile: Leslie Wolcott
Rhetorical Context:
My profile will feature an interview with Professor Leslie Wolcott. It will chronicle how
Professor Wolcott has used her civic engagement experiences to help teach and inspire her
students in the Writing and Rhetoric department. I will submit this profile to UCF Today, the
email newsletter that the university sends out to its students, faculty, and staff. The profile will
target students who would like to either enroll in writing and rhetoric classes geared toward civic
engagement or would like to learn more about Professor Wolcott. It will also give other faculty
members a chance to hear Professor Wolcotts background and ideas about civic engagement.
Although Professor Wolcott has only been an instructor here at UCF for a short time, she has
created the department of Writing and Rhetorics first Writing for Social Change class along with
Dr. Blake Scott. This profile will showcase Professor Wolcotts dedication to community service
and the university while also informing students about the unique classes that the writing and
rhetoric department offers that helps incorporate civic engagement into the curriculum.

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Although shes only been an upper level instructor here at the University of Central
Florida for a short time, Leslie Wolcott has made quite an impression on her students and fellow
faculty members. I should know, because I was in two of Professor Wolcotts classes last year:
Rhetoric and Civic Engagement and UCFs inaugural class of Writing for Social Change.
Wolcotts ways of teaching helped me realize how I can draw on my own passion for community
service and use the skills I learned from her classes to help out other organizations around the
community. I was amazed by her devotion to her students and her enthusiasm for the classes she
taught.
Wolcott graduated with a Masters degree in Literature and the Environment from the
University of Nevada, but first got involved in fighting for a better environment after going on an
Interdisciplinary Field Program, a study abroad trip as an undergraduate at the University of
Georgia. On the trip, Wolcott was able to see just what kind of shape our environment was in
and how she could help start making small changes to make a big difference in the lives of
others.
We travelled by van and camped for an entire eight weeks around the United States.
And we went to national parks and state parks and did roadside ecology and geology. And
seeing the whole country while studying geology, ecology and anthropology made me realize,
were kind of screwing things up --- we could be doing things differently. And I think that was
partially a turning point for me, Wolcott said.
Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Wolcott has been surrounded by nature. After doing
research for a writing class, Wolcott discovered that the creek lying right in her backyard was a
wasteland for a Hormel chili plant just upstream. This experience made her realize that

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monstrosities destroying our planet would continue to happen if someone did not step up to make
a change --- and why couldnt that person be her?
Wolcott has become an advocate for social change not only in the environment, but also
through other important social issues around the Central Florida community. Wolcott volunteers
some of her time helping train para-triathlon athletes with the Central Florida Tri Club. While
there she has learned how to use some of her own skills and training to encourage these athletes
to do their best.
Wolcott says she owes credit to the amazing people she worked with while part of the
Michigan Peace Education Center. It was there where she could get a sense of what civic
engagement was. She met people who had been working for social change their entire lives.
For example, one of her mentors, Ann Francis, worked in Michigans car factories as an
agent of change to speak on behalf of womens rights. Francis was a Quaker and Wolcott learned
a lot from her about how to work with others to come to a consensus in order to achieve the goals
of any organization. Bill Petry, another one of Wolcotts mentors, was a community college
mathematics professor and was also active in Civil Rights in the 1960s. Petry shared his story of
Civil Rights advocacy with Wolcott. Petry travelled from Michigan to Atlanta, Georgia to
protest against race segregation. He was later thrown in jail for participating alongside the
protesters for desegregation. Although he feared for his life, he stayed by the sides of other
advocates of desegregation.
He was a really patient, listening advocate for change. Wherever he went he always left
people wanting to do more and wanting to do better.
Wolcott learned about issues that she may have never learned about, just being
surrounded by people who were dedicated advocates for social change.

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Sometimes on a college campus you dont always hear these kinds of voices. The fact
that a professor could be a professor and stand up for what he believed in --- and do those two
things simultaneously --- was not something I had seen before.
After her experience in the Peace Education Center, Wolcott gained a new perspective on
what a profession in teaching could be. Wolcott wanted to do something useful for students and
try to make the world a better place in ways that would demand criticism from herself as a
professor and from the students she taught.
In the Fall 2013 semester, she has gotten students from the Rhetoric and Civic
Engagement class to volunteer for Project Bithlo, an initiative started by UCFs College
Democrats that is committed to transforming the run-down, neglected city of Bithlo, a suburb
just on the outskirts of Orlando. As part of the curriculum for the Rhetoric and Civic
Engagement class, students are encouraged to define what civic engagement means to them and
are often inspired to volunteer on their own.
When I took Wolcotts Rhetoric and Civic Engagement class in Fall 2012, I was able to
build a portfolio and learn about other students who were also civically engaged. I was also able
to figure out what civic engagement is exactly by looking at the examples of civic engagement
that Wolcott brought to life in our class. Her stories about the people she encountered and how
she interacted with others to bring about change for her community illustrated the hard work and
passion that we all must have in order to make these positive changes.
I also had to work collaboratively with the rest of the class to make an interactive map of
transportation issues around the UCF campus. This project helped me realize that often times we
must work with others to help bring about change to our communities. As a class, we had to
come to a consensus about each decision to create the map. It was difficult, but with Professor

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Wolcotts help and guidance, we created a website featuring all of our hard work on
UCFEngaged.wordpress.com. The website included profiles of students who were civically
engaged and also an extensive section for our interactive map. We were able to mix all of our
parts of the map together and create an effective map that detailed the many problems and issues
about transportation ranging from biking, to car-less students, to roadside memorials, to
sidewalks that had odd endings, to the UCF shuttle system.
Wolcott also helped create a class along with Dr. Blake Scott and several other faculty
members of the Writing and Rhetoric program specifically for social change. The first inaugural
class of Writing for Social Change took place during the Spring 2013 semester. As a student in
the class, I was able to work on a team directly with community organizations as partners who
completed writing tasks and projects to promote civic engagement. Wolcott was able to take
some of her experiences she gained working as a community organizer and non-profit volunteer
to teach us how to write collaboratively for one purpose or goal.
Students partnered with organizations that included Lighthouse of Central Florida,
Special Olympics Seminole County, the Radha Krishna Foundation, and the Spokes Council.
Because I was already involved with the Special Olympics of Seminole County, I wanted to
partner with the organization to help them with a brochure for their newest Young Athlete
Program. With two other students, we created the brochure to promote the program to families
with special needs children. By the end of the class, the brochure was sent out to 12 schools and
non-profit organizations around the Central Florida area to recruit more young athletes for the
program. We were able to see our work in action and helped recruit 33 new athletes for the
Special Olympics Young Athlete Program for the next season.

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This inaugural class was a big step for Wolcott and the Writing and Rhetoric department.
Along with her students, Wolcott was able to bring about a more functional sense of social
change to the UCF community.
The reality of social change is that it is done collectively, not individually. If I could get
that point across and just the idea of listening before you do; those were some of the things early
on that I knew I wanted to get done, and maybe did. Theres this idea of community literacy
thats kind of tied up in that too. Not everyone understands that term the same way, Wolcott
said.
Wolcott hopes that her students are able to connect their experiences in her classes to
other social issues that they may be able to help out with through their own special skills and
interests they hold. I have continued helping out with the Special Olympics Seminole County
by writing newsletters and fundraising letters for the organization. Other students have gotten
engaged on campus through College Democrats, Project Bithlo, becoming Volunteer UCF
committee chairs, and even working with youth in Guyana over the summer.
Professor Wolcott has made such an impact in such a short amount of time here at UCF.
She says she is still learning even more about civic engagement throughout her life. After our
Writing for Social Change class, Wolcott volunteered alongside me for the Special Olympics
Seminole County swim team. It was one of the first times she worked with people who had
intellectual disabilities. She was not quite sure how to interact with the athletes and asked for
some of my guidance. But Wolcott realizes that sometimes civic engagement is a learning
process.
When I was working with the swimmers, I was unsure of what they were saying, but
you told me, Theyre just people. Just ask them. When I went home that day, I told my

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husband about it and he suggested Maybe youre not coaching for them; youre coaching for
you. Thats what learning is; its doing things wrong and then being able to do them right the
second time.
Professor, civic engagement activist, and overall enthusiastic philanthropist, Leslie
Wolcott is a great asset not only to the Writing and Rhetoric Department, but to the University of
Central Florida. If you ever have the privilege of taking one of Professor Wolcotts classes, be
prepared to become a civically engaged student, and maybe even an avid activist for social
change.