When students are struggling with research for their papers, they often overlook key resources, like the research and instruction librarian Sarah Moazeni ’10. Moazeni’s main job is to meet with students and support them in their research endeavors.
Originally from California, Moazeni grew up loving theater and acting. Throughout her time as a student at Wellesley, Moazeni demonstrated a strong interest in theater, majoring in theater studies and participating in Shakespeare Society and Upstage productions. She was also passionate about the preservation of historical works in libraries, hence her love for her role in Clapp Library.
Moazeni has always had a deep love for Wellesley, starting before she even enrolled as a student years ago. She had been living in Brooklyn while working in the Archive and Special Collection at New York University. However, when the opportunity to work at Wellesley arose, Moazeni had no qualms about packing her bags and returning to her roots. She bought a house in Natick with her husband this past summer in order to start working at Wellesley in the fall.
In her role as research and instruction librarian, Moazeni supports both students and faculty. Her main goal in the community, though, is conferencing with students and providing feedback and support on their assignments and projects.
“I meet with students one on one to discuss the projects or assignments that they’re working on. Then, I provide individually tuned feedback and guidance to help them make their work even better,” she said.
She also consults with faculty members and professors to help them find ways to incorporate the topics they are teaching into innovative and engaging assignments. Furthermore, she visits classes and talks with students about what they’re working on and how to use the resources available to them. She provides this support in a variety of ways, from pulling supporting evidence from books already in the library to directing students to specific archives online that relate to their research.
“I usually help students find different types of sources, narrow their topic or discover new ways to present their material,” she said.
Though her job entails many different duties, Moazeni’s favorite part is working with students. She has always been passionate about the students at Wellesley. However, her role as a staff member has given her a different outlook as she interacts with them.
“I love engaging with them because they constantly become more intelligent and have such interesting ideas, perspectives and contexts from looking at their own worlds – everyone comes from a different background,” she said.
Moazeni also expressed her excitement for working with some of her old professors. She has enjoyed getting to interact with members of the college in a way that is very different from the way she did as a student.
While she loves how busy her job keeps her, Moazeni does say that it is hard to balance all of her obligations. Between supporting and improving the 12 different department distributions assigned to her and meeting with students, faculty and classes, her calendar “is a sea of half-hour meetings.”
Nevertheless, Moazeni is passionate about her role at Wellesley and feels like it is a perfect combination of all of her favorite things: community engagement, library work and the college itself. She loves all of the hands-on work she gets to do with students, though she feels like it is never quite enough. She urges students to reach out to the library staff more often. They are an incredible resource that the college offers, and their main purpose is helping students better themselves first and their work second.
“Come to the library! We’re here to help. We’re the people that want to support you, but don’t get to grade you. We’ll listen to your ideas and offer new perspectives and resources to help you succeed even greater. Don’t forget about us!” she said.
