Student writers labeled "underprepared" by colleges often have trouble imagining themselves as scholars. Challenges these students routinely encounter include difficulty forming original insights and translating ideas to the page. Although the usage of the term "underprepared" varies across institutional contexts, the designation commonly requires that students enroll in a developmental writing course, making it difficult for these students to feel confident in their work and academic abilities. In this article, I position mindfulness as a strategy instructors can use to nurture students' emerging scholarly identities. After describing common teaching challenges and the role mindfulness might play in overcoming them, I share a sample course schedule and series of assignments for a first-year writing course that incorporates mindfulness practices, such as slow reading and deep listening. These exercises and assignments can help students develop unique voices and connections to course material, qualities that tend to translate to higher levels of student confidence in both the writing classroom and in the college environment more generally.