Seven Surprising Facts about Bedford New Scholars

[MarisaBluestone]

Our Bedford New Scholars are meeting next month, and we’re excited to hear what this year’s Scholars have to say when it comes to important topics in education, primarily student engagement, online learning and inclusive classrooms.

Back in 2008, Bedford/St. Martin’s created this program with one goal in mind: to provide a way for the English editorial team to hear from each year’s promising graduate students about the teaching challenges that they face in the composition classroom and the research that excites them.

Over the years, we’ve learned a lot from each Scholar Advisory Board. From editing headlines to helping first-edition authors and more, read on for a few fun facts about our Bedford New Scholars advisory board.

1. The Bedford New Scholars program has welcomed students from more than 80 graduate programs.
   
   
2. The Bedford New Scholars have often been a critical stop for a first-edition manuscript in development or an author tour. The authors get the chance to speak and present their work, which in the past has helped shape their manuscript, the messaging, and even the author’s presentation -- all of which is a part of the book launch.
   
   
3. One year, the Scholars had the chance to vote on a few headlines that were being considered for the catalog and other promotional material. With their help, we went with their top choice, “Help writers embrace a recursive writing process,” which then turned into “Strong writers embrace a recursive writing process”. 
   
   
4. After last year’s very first virtual event, many Scholars noted that participating in the virtual summit prepared them for online teaching once they returned to their institutions in the fall.
   
   
5. We continue working with many Scholars after their advisory board duties! For instance, our Senior Development Editor Leah Rang is working with Lucy Johnson (a 2015 Bedford New Scholar) on developing activities in Achieve for Everything’s an Argument.
   
   
6. The Scholars help share innovative ideas for assessments and material with our editors; one particular Scholar advisory board helped us with the draft of a flyer by pointing out some of its features that weren’t as engaging or needed more clarification in their descriptions. 
   
   
7. This year tips us over 100 total students that have become Bedford New Scholars since the program started.

These promising graduates are the future of the field, and their feedback can only help us create products that are even more inclusive, empathetic, and knowledgeable. To learn more about the Bedford New Scholars program and this year’s advisory board, click here.