GEAR UP Student Performs at the Story Week Festival

On Saturday, March 21, Clemente GEAR UP staff Yesenia Villalobos and Noemi Roman attended the Story Week Festival for the Young Author Playlist performances. One of Roberto Clemente Community Academy’s very own GEAR UP students – Michael Glenn (class of 2016) – participated as a final component of a writing program he attended. With GEAR UP staff support, Michael applied to this eight-week writing course offered by Columbia College and attended Saturday sessions on campus.

During the Young Author Playlist program, students developed their writing skills and attended classes led by Columbia College professors. They developed a piece of their choice, fiction or nonfiction, to perform publicly and be published in the Hypertext Magazine. Michael was one out of five students who performed their stories for Cyn Vargas, a talented new author and a recipient of the Ragdale Fellowship and the 2013 Guild Literary Complex Prose Award in Fiction. Cyn opened Story Week by sharing an excerpt from her book and then facilitated a question and answer session. Michael read his piece titled “The Train,” which was based on his real life experience.

Michael commented on why he writes and said, “The power of the word on the page is that it can be your escape.” Michael, continue to make the Clemente community proud!