With just under a week away, we are excited to offer 7 outstanding creative writing workshops and host roughly 170 students from more than 10 different schools for day of writing at the University of Massachusetts.

We have not reached our fundraising goal, but after revising plans for the culminating student writing publication, we are still able to offer an excellent program thanks to all of the generous support.

Just in case anyone may have missed the deadline to donate, we have extended the campaign through this Friday. Any additional funds raised may enable us to offer additional paperback versions of the publication for students and parents to display on bookshelves or coffee tables.

So please spread the word, and the link to our page, to anyone else who may be interested in supporting this memorable and meaningful event for growing young writers.

Thank you all once again for your generous support. 

The chatter subsided. Middle and high schoolers began to line up beside a stage. One by one, and after a brief introduction, they were called up to the podium to share their work, and while I do not remember what those students wrote, these young authors made quite an impression on me—they were passionate about writing, and they were up there belting it out like pros. Poetry, memoir, short story, essay, and nearly every genre my then sixth-grade self could conceive of was represented. After I got over these students’ stage presence and strength of delivery, there were just words. And words I knew I could write; they were the reason I was here. 

In this passage, Nikki Crosby remembers her participation in a WMWP Youth Writing Program while in middle school and reflects on the impact it had on her life and career. (You can read Nikki's full story here.)

This fundraising campaign aims to do for other area youths what that earlier WMWP program and others like it did for Nikki and hundreds of other students in Western Massachusetts.

The 2017 Western Massachusetts Writing Project Youth Writing Adventure will bring 200 students and 10 teachers to the UMass campus in March for a day of multi-genre writing and thinking outside of standardized test-prep writing. The workshop and its culminating publication, a digital and print anthology of student work begun on campus, will empower the participants to see themselves as writers and inspire them to find their voices.

The day will include two rounds of workshops, lunch in the dining hall, and a celebration at which students will share their work with their peers. The program will be led by teacher-consultants from WMWP, which is a professional development program for K-16 teachers supported by the UMass Department of English and College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Youth writing programs offer teachers and students opportunities for dynamic exploration and growth in writing without the looming pressure of test scores. Simply put, youth writing programs can

• diversify students' writing skills

• encourage students to explore new creative writing avenues

• be geared towards students’ interests

• foster motivation and enjoyment for writing as a craft

• inspire new ideas to bring to the classroom

• create authentic audiences and opportunities for feedback

• broaden and connect teaching and learning communities

• strengthen relationships among teachers, students, and parents

Another benefit is that spending time on a university campus during the "tween" years can encourage young people who might not otherwise see college in their futures to imagine themselves as college students and strive to make it happen, as Nikki attests when she wrote:

That day, when the Western Massachusetts Writing Project award ceremony commenced, I was a pretty good writer—for a country girl. Upon conclusion, I was a good writer period, and I returned home with a deep sense of empowerment. The world of academia was not that hostile, elitist, and impossibly difficult to penetrate place I imagined it to be. I had been there.

Thank you again for supporting this project. Please consider sharing this message with your friends and colleagues and encouraging them to support it as well.

A final thought from Nikki's story:

I am now a high school English teacher after taking the path of greatest resistance, becoming the college educated person that I was never raised to be. I chose this path to change the minds of talented students who fashion themselves as rural, or poor, or minority, or otherwise an “other,” and, therefore, unfit to hold the keys to the educational kingdom. I want for them what WMWP did for me. Without the WMWP [youth writing program], I would have been oblivious to avenues before me.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our efforts so far to raise the funds needed to facilitate this beneficial program for young writers. We need to get much closer to our goal to be able to offer this opportunity for students and schools. 

Please consider supporting us further by passing our page link on to others who might be willing to help make this program possible. 

Remember, the support and generosity from yourself and others allows us to:

• Offer professional development for the program teachers
• Create interactive workshop sessions and materials
• Host up to 200 students from multiple schools, especially underserved urban and rural public schools
• Guide students in their exploration and growth in multiple genres
• Provide a full day college campus experience—including lunch—for the students
• Follow up with teachers after the workshop to receive final drafts for publication
• Design a multi-genre publication of students' writing
• Distribute the publication to students and donors

Thank you again for your support!