English Major and Guest Blogger Sarah Wells shares what she has been doing this summer!
This summer I’ve been lucky enough to work with a group, as a publishing intern, that I used to be a part of in middle and high school. The group is a nonprofit for young writers based in Burlington, VT called the Young Writers Project. It is a community for elementary-high school students to come and share their writing, with other kids around the state as well as the staff at the nonprofit and mentors on the site. The goal of the project is to let kids know that their voices matter as well as to help them hone those voices.
The project works with local papers to publish students’ writing throughout the year and every fall the project releases an Anthology (a collection of the best student work from the previous year) at their “Celebration of Writing”. I started sharing my work on the site when I was in 8th grade and continued to do so through my senior year of high school and have been in three of their annual anthologies in years past.
This summer I’ve been working with the publishing coordinator and the other staff to create the project’s 6th annual Anthology. It’s been a process that has spanned many weeks -- pouring over 1,500+ pieces and narrowing it down to around 80 in the end. I’ve also been working with the kids this summer, in the site’s “Summer of Stories Challenge”, the goal of which is to combat the boredom of summer by challenging the kids to write everyday for at least 10 minutes on over 40 prompts given to them throughout the summer. The enthusiasm of the kids and their skill never ceases to amaze me.
I happen to be in the 2013’s annual Anthology on page 18 for anyone curious.
