The 2021 WITS Year-End Digital Gallery

A digital celebration of WITS students from the 2020/21 school year.

Welcome to the 2021 WITS Year-End Digital Gallery!

This gallery is a celebration of student voice and writing over the course of the 2020/21 school year. Our Writers in the Schools (WITS) program provides students with additional creative writing tools to help process and respond to the world, build community, and cultivate joy in the practice of writing and strengthening one’s unique creative voice.

This multi-media gallery—alphabetized by students’ last names—honors the time students spent writing and creating with WITS during the digital, then hybrid, 2020/21 school year. This gallery is a testament to the hard work and creative voices of K-12 public school students, writers, teachers, and communities across the Puget Sound area. Through this digital gallery, student work can be seen, shared, and celebrated across the world and, we hope, serve as a source of inspiration and connection for family and community near and far.

Written by students throughout K-12 Puget Sound region public school classrooms and at Seattle Children’s Hospital, these pieces inspire us all to notice and appreciate the changing world in this historical moment, and many ways in which students are processing the vast array of experiences they have witnessed and faced over the past year.

Click through the galleries below to see, hear, and read the creative writing performed by WITS students, with special introductions from their WITS Writers-in-Residence. We are grateful to these students, and their many fellow classmates, for providing such a rich and beautiful archive of this last year of life, online schooling, and pandemic experiences, and hope our community will be buoyed by listening to their voices.

As a keepsake, you can download high-quality digital posters of this collection of student writing by clicking the button below.

Download Posters

 

FAQ

Whose work can I see here?

Posters and audio-video recordings are listed in alphabetical order, by each student’s last name. Here is a full list of participants:

Zia Agarwala, Hamilton International Middle School

Ian Bridges, Seattle Children’s Hospital

Audrey Drake, Port Townsend High School

Rin DuCharme, Big Picture High School

Gwyneth Febus, Nathan Hale High School

Marcus Frantela, Renaissance School of Art & Reasoning

JaNaya Hall, Seattle Children’s Hospital

Dorian Hayes, Ballard High School

Suhayb Ismail, Washington Middle School

Delilah Ivanek, The Center School

Ivy Lorca, Dearborn Park International Elementary School

Nicholas Macha, McClure Middle School

Amanda Miller, Renaissance School of Art & Reasoning

Cassidy Murray, TOPS K-8 School

Quynh Nguyen, Evergreen High School

Saioa Ouyoumjian, Catharine Blaine K-8 School

Aqel Paine, TOPS K-8 School

Jessica Phan, Evergreen High School

Zavye’ Rivers-Joseph, Leschi Elementary School

Estelle Ryman, Hamilton International Middle School

Miyabi Schorn, Lafayette Elementary School

Thewdros Shibeshi, Franklin High School

Julian Kenzo Smith, B.F. Day Elementary School

Isla Snyder, Laurelhurst Elementary School

Adrian H. Vazquez, Alan T. Sugiyama High School

Can I get a copy of my student's poster?

WITS has printed posters for each family, and we will be mailing them directly to your home address. Families and schools are welcome to download the print files and print additional copies. Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions!

Can you tell me more about the WITS program?

SAL’s Writers in the Schools (WITS) program connects professional writers with public school classrooms throughout the Puget Sound region to elevate the expressions of all students as they discover and develop their authentic writing and performance voices. Through WITS, students become authors of their own lives. Click here to learn more.

How can I support WITS?

Now, at this crucial time, we deeply appreciate donations of any size to our Writers in the Schools program. Click here to donate.

Can you share other creative writing resources?

We always recommend Scribes Summer Camp at Hugo House! Many of WITS Writers-in-Residence also teach Scribes in the summer, which has a pay-what-you-can option, as well as scholarships. Here is a list of Hugo House WITS writer camps this year!

We also invite students age 17 and under to play Kids Summer Book Bingo. Spend the summer reading for the chance to win fabulous prizes! (Those who are 18 and older are welcome to participate in Adult Summer Book Bingo).

For young creative writers, our WITS team has also put together a WITS Writing Book Bingo board that’s filled with fun writing challenges.