The Sari Silbert Rovinsky ‘12 Memorial Endowed Writing Studio Fund 

At Warren Wilson, Sari Rovinsky discovered the gift of mentoring her peers as writers. Sari’s parents, Paula and Paul Rovinsky, established this fund to keep Sari’s memory present and active in the community she loved. 

Homeschooled with her mother’s mentorship, as a child Sari was a motivated and independent learner who often taught herself through writing projects. It was how she discovered the world and who she was.  Like an artist, words became her palette and stories her canvas. The written word also became a lens through which she related to others.

Soon after Sari arrived at Warren Wilson, she stumbled into the Writing Center in Sutherland's basement while looking for the laundry room. She applied to join the crew and stayed on as a peer tutor for three rich, intellectual, and laughter-filled years. Sari was not content with the status quo. Rather than just sit there, she went for walks with peer writers she sensed longed to go outside. Instead of limiting all sessions to the standard hour, she extended sessions into the night if it benefited a writer. With her mentorship, students who had doubted their abilities found their voices on the page. 

Sari called her organic approach “dynamic tutoring.” She developed trainings for the crew, and presented on this concept at writing center conferences to other colleges. Over the years, through the Center’s move to the library and a renaming as the Writing Studio, Sari’s dynamic tutoring concept stayed one of the Studio’s guiding principles. Thus, Sari touched not only her classmates and co-workers, but also the many students who came after her and the whole Warren Wilson community.

Her classmate Brandon Nancarrow wrote of the legacy that the Sari Rovinsky fund allows the Writing Studio to sustain: "First, Sari was a writer. She used her words to help heal herself and to heal so many around her. It was her power and her strength and she commanded the English language. She held the power of words, so let us be aware of that power. Let our words uplift and enlighten, let them inspire peace and goodness between everyone, and let us be wary that they can be so quick to divide us. She was a teacher so let us mentor, tutor, and learn. Let us inspire the divine search for knowledge, let us teach and be taught and grow with her memory."

The Writing Studio is guided by Sari’s light and her family, friends and classmates’ love to use these funds in the pursuit of knowledge and peace.