News at Buckley

Collaboration with Iowa Writers’ Workshop Going Strong

For the third year in a row, Upper School students made the three-day pilgrimage to study with graduate students at the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. 
Buckley piloted the partnership with the prestigious graduate program in 2016, inspiring NWP directors John D’Agata and Bonnie Sunstein to invite students and teachers from seven of the poorest public high schools in Iowa to take writing workshops, using the Buckley program as its model.
 
Buckley’s program was the brainchild of Upper School English teacher Mitch Kohn and D’Agata, a friend of Kohn’s.
 
This was the third year for junior Dylan P., who’s gone to Iowa all three years since he was a freshman. D’Agata presented him with an honorary Masters of Fine Arts degree.
 
“Students who come back can build on what they’ve done before,” says Kohn, who adds that while they used to group students by grade level, they now group them based on whether they’ve already been on the program.
 
New sixth and seventh grade English teacher Ke’Yuanda Robertson joined the scribe tribe this year, doing the writing exercises along with everyone else, as chaperones on this trip typically do.
 
 “I was able to feel the angst students feel when sharing their work,” says Robertson. “I became more empathetic to their experience in class.”
 
Robertson and Kohn traveled with 20 students this year, the highest participation number yet. Students engaged in workshops with varying topics: writing in 300-words or fewer, writing about art, writing about what home means to them, learning how to build tension in storytelling.
 
“[The instructors] say they prefer Buckley students to some of the undergraduates they teach,” says Kohn. “They’re focused, adventurous, and they’re open to whatever’s thrown at them.”
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