High School Writing Day: American Writer II

A record crowd—241 juniors and seniors and 25 teachers from 14 area high schools—converged on the Missouri Western Campus on Thursday, March 6, to participate in this year’s "American Writer II" High School Writing Day, jointly sponsored by the EFLJ Department, Prairie Lands Writing Project, and Western’s Student Affiliate National Council of Teachers of English (SNCTE) Club.

Students collaborated on poems during the morning Audition, participated in a series of writing workshops, and read their original works at the final Open Mic session. Teachers joined Western faculty members at lunch to hear Kay Siebler, MWSU Composition Director, discuss "Why I Teach Writing."

KUDOS to:
American Writer II Host: Western BSE English major and SNCTE President Kyla Ward
Workshop Presenters: Western English/journalism faculty Meg Thompson, Dawn Terrick, Bill Church, Dana Andrews, Stacia Bensyl, Mike Cadden, and Bob Bergland; Western BSE English alum Amy Miller (Benton High School English teacher); Western BSE English and Graduate Certificate alum Debbie Schwebach (Lathrop High School English teacher and curriculum director); Western BSE English alum Tina Janc (Buchanan County Academy Literacy Teacher); Vickey Meyer (St. Joseph Central Creative Writing Teacher); Western English majors Dustin Limback, Mary Stone, and Hannah Strasser.

High School Writing Day Planning Team Members: Western BSE English alums and Benton High School English teachers Amy Miller and Stefanie Lyle; Western English faculty Tom Pankiewicz and Jane Frick; BSE English majors Kyla Ward and Josie Clark.

SNCTE Teacher Assistants: BSE English majors Luke Akers, Jocelyn Clubine, Amanda Hash, Lisa Crawford, Denise Price, Amanda Rawlings, Katie Shobe, Holly Richardson, and Aimee Whitacre.

Western BSE English alums who brought their students to High School Writing Day: Sara Capra (Park Hill High School), Debbie Schwebach (Lathrop High School), Emily Garrett (West Platte High School), K'lea Snyder (Benton High School), Melisa Harper (Cameron High School), Ron Lathrop (Smithville High School), Heidi Mick (Platte County High School), Deb Moore (Leblond High School), Kathryn Nichols and Sandy Veale (Mid-Buchanan High School).

For pictures, video, and poetry from the event, see the "2009 American Writer Retrospective": http://www.missouriwestern.edu/plwp/americanwriter2/