Introducing Bank of America Fellowships for Urban Youth

I learned yesterday afternoon that the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield received one of a few grants in the northeast to support projects that give back to the community. We were rewarded money to offer fellowships to teenagers in Bridgeport to attend a summer writing institute that focuses on professional and career writing. The grant will also allow the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield to host Writing Our Lives conferences (as mentored by Dr. Marcelle Haddix at Syracuse University). The two of us learned quickly that young people want opportunities to write beyond school in professional and creative genres because schools too often overlook such writing in a test-crazed industry of on-demand writing.

As of today, I'm not sure of the details of the grant other than it was written to host youth conferences, to support writing programs in Connecticut, and to sponsor twenty young people in the Young Writers' Institute at Fairfield.

The National Writing Project knows that the great work of doing what is best for young people takes perseverance, creativity, innovation, and commitment. It also requires the financial backing of businesses interested in investing in youth. For this reason, I'm extremely thankful to Bank of America for believing in the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield's work to prepare another generation of writers. Kudos to them.