Writing Workshop Brings Somers Students Together

SOMERS, N.Y. - Emma Gordon, a junior at Somers High School, loves writing so much that she decided to present a creative writing workshop to share her passion with younger students.

“I created this workshop because I love writing,” said Emma. “Primrose was where that love for writing began.”

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Emma visited Cherie Stietzel’s second-grade class to conduct her creative writing workshop. She chose Mrs. Stietzel’s class because she was Cherie’s student back in 2013. She didn’t earn community service hours, and this wasn’t a class assignment. She simply wanted to give back to younger students to help foster a new generation of writers.

“Mrs. Stietzel's class first sparked my interest in writing, and I wanted to help spark future writers' interests,” Emma said.

During the workshop, Emma and the students shared challenges that they have had to overcome in their lives. They used those experiences from their lives to help them connect to a writing prompt about characters having to overcome challenges as well. Along with the prompt as a guideline, students were encouraged to write freely to let their imaginations shine.

“Writing is not just for essays or for getting your homework done,” Emma said. “It is also a way to be creative and let ideas flow that you wouldn't have had a chance to share otherwise.”

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As a junior, Emma has started looking into colleges and has found that her creativity is a key component in that process. Emma has participated in a poetry writing program at Vanderbilt University and plans to attend another creative writing program at Brown University this summer. Going back to her second-grade classroom made her nostalgic for where her love of writing all began.

“I felt very welcomed to come back to my old school, and I would happily do it again,” Emma said, “both to visit my old school that gave me so many amazing memories and lessons and to visit the students at the school now to help give them that same experience. The way their faces lit up when they realized that they had the opportunity to write about whatever they wanted made me realize just how important this workshop was to open their minds to writing and letting their creativity flow.”

Article courtesy of Somers Central School District.

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