Students hone their writing in DSU

Josh Baumgardner and Natasha Gomez

March 30, 2026

Freshman accounting major Esma Selimoic, left, and junior business management major Angelique Neema, right, help each other with cursive writing during F1rst Gen’s cursive writing workshop partnered with WKU Libraries on Friday, March 27, 2026. (Natasha Gomez)

The WKU Libraries partnered with the campus F1rstGen initiative on Friday to host a cursive writing workshop for students in the Downing Student Union.

Nancy Richey, the special formats librarian, led the workshop. The group handed out practice sheets, along with historical documents in cursive.

“It’s more than just putting something on paper,” Richey said. “It’s training your brain in a certain way.”

F1rst Gen Advisor April McCauley guides sophomore biology major Kaelyn Price through the cursive writing exercises provided during F1rst Gen’s cursive writing workshop partnered with WKU Libraries on Friday, March 27, 2026. (Natasha Gomez)

F1rstGen Program Specialist April McCauley received the idea for the workshop from Student Government Association senators at the end of last fall.

“I knew they didn’t teach cursive in school anymore, but I didn’t know students cared,” McCauley said.

Attendee Kaelyn Price, a sophomore biology major, wanted a better grasp of reading cursive to read historical documents. Price also has a tradition of sending letters to a long-distance friend.

“It would be nice to send at least one (letter) in cursive,” Price said.

This was just one event in the Make it Count series created by the F1rstGen initiative. These events typically happen once a month and offer guidance to first-generation students whose parents did not attend college. The remaining events for the year can be found on the Suitable app for students.

“There’s so much support for first-gen students, and I don’t think they understand that,” McCauley said. “It’s about connections, and then hopefully all of these students will come back.”