EXCERPTS FROM STUDENT COMMENTS

on the Pilot of the Student Publishing Program

From Karen Russell’s Letter to a Grant Committee

Supplementing the Student Publishing Program’s Grant Proposal

Thanks to the funding provided by LHS Principal, Dr. Earnest Van Seasholes, and LHS Yearbook Advisor, Karen Mechem, we are currently working with two sophomore English classes to pilot the Student Publishing Program. These classes represent the entire spectrum of ability levels.

                  Not only are we impressed with the exceptional pieces of poetry, fiction and essays that the students are engaged in writing for publication, we are most enthusiastic about the workshops that our writing consultant Anthony Tedesco conducted in each of our classes this week. The components are outlined within the proposal for the Student Publishing Program:

Anthony Tedesco will conduct an introductory workshop for each sophomore class. Focusing on helping students recognize themselves as worthy writers, he will introduce them to a fuller spectrum of what is considered good writing, including performance poetry videos, rap lyrics, and both conventional and unconventional pieces from historic writers, current New Yorker contributors, published teenage contemporaries and even samples from last year’s LHS sophomores. He will also help students find and nurture their own literary voices through providing tips on the generative phase of the writing process. … Finally it will debunk the myth that young people haven’t lived long enough to write something of consequence, and reinforce the fact that students can be successful authors, poets and journalists right now.

                  We have included excerpts from the students’ written responses to our request that they take a few minutes to assess the workshop. Their observations demonstrate the unprecedented level of unanimous enthusiasm expressed by both classes. The students’ complete responses remain on file in our classrooms.

“This is so amazing. It makes me want to write so much more. Before I just had a feeling, a sense ‘Yes, I want to be a writer when I grow up.’ I have a better understanding—it’s not just words on paper that are coming out of your head, it’s so much feeling, so much expression of who you are and what you’re feeling. You can write about anything. You can write about the simplest thing and turn it into something ‘out of this world.’ Now not only do I have love for writing, now I have so much passion for it. I am so excited to start. There are so many styles out there. I can’t wait to taste them all.”

—NICOLE TARDIFF

“… Anthony and his video showed me that you could take anything around you and turn it into personal writing, just how you feel about things, about things you want to do that may be hard to do but you want to do them anyway no matter how the odds are stacked against you.”

—SHAYNE OSBOURNE

“The idea of publishing my story means to me that someone will be able to read my work. Someone out there is going to read students’ work.”

—DANIELA MARTINELLI

“This was helpful to me because it taught me to look at writing differently.”

—MARK BRESNIHAN

“You can write anything in a poem. It doesn’t have to go with each sentence. You just have to let it flow. You might not like your writing at the time, but you’ll have great feedback on it.”

—MARISSA COOPER

“I think the presentation was cool. It was interesting to see about all the different types of writing. It’s also cool how he’s telling how good it is and can be in publishing your own work … about all the different topics.”

—TINA D’AMORE

“From Anthony is expressed that the simplest thing can be published and become the best. Also I realized that whatever you write can be poetry as long as you stick to it.”

—TIMIKA BANKS

“… I found the session with Mr. Tedesco was extremely valuable. He seemed like a really great guy, and extremely enthusiastic about writing in general. … The most valuable thing about Mr. Tedesco’s talk was the way he encouraged our writing. It was very effective the way he used examples from our journal entries to show how good our writing was. It gave me confidence and helped me get over my block.”

—SARA DEL NIDO

“… I had forgotten, or never really realized that journal entries, little sketches and scenes, and short poems that don’t tell a story all ‘count’ as pieces of writing … I used to think there were two different types of writing, one kind for the author himself and one kind for an audience. But, if an author really puts all of his feelings into a piece of writing for himself, I don’t see how it couldn’t affect an audience …”

—SAMIRA VACHANI

“… Anthony’s presentation I really liked. He was very motivating and encouraging for me to write what I am really feeling. I think whatever I finally choose to write will be better …”

—SCOTT FLEISHMAN

“… His workshop was encouraging and informative about other forms of writing. It has helped also as I gained new insight about rejection and writer’s block. I think student publishing may be something that I may look into further.”

—RYAN TSOU

“Mr. Tedesco really made a lasting impression on me because he seemed so passionate about his own writing. He really wants to get young people published at an early age. … He also had a good sense of humor and clearly loves his job as a writer. I will take all the points he brought up into consideration as I finish my creative writing piece.”

—LIZ YURKEVICZ

“… I look forward to working with him on this project a little more, and think that this project is a great idea and will be a huge success this year and in the future.”

—KATE GILDERSLEEVE

“… I found this quite inspiring as a writer. I also feel more comfortable with the idea of publishing my writing because my worries that no one will like my poetry have been reduced.”

—ALICE WANG

“… Anthony seemed so passionate about his writing and teaching others about how to write and that everyone is capable of getting something published. … After listening to Anthony and reading his packet, I realize that not everyone who writes and has things published is an amazing writer, they’re just passionate about what it is they’re writing.”

—JAMIE BABCOCK

“Anthony offered so much inspiration. The video and packet he gave us really opened me up to all of the options available.”

—SARA ARNOUDSE