The opening of the Writers’ room (decked out in 826 fantasy pirate fashion) took place on September 16th starting with a three week biography project. Over forty fabulous tutors and myself worked on this project with two eighth grade language arts teachers, Ms. Bita Nazarian and Dr. Joyce Coble. Over the course of a week we saw the entire eight grade language arts classes-half one day and the remaining half the next. Student worked primarily one-on-one with an 826 tutor to perfect their biography papers, which included facts about an elder that they had interviewed.

The first day, we warmed up the students up by having them practice interviewing techniques. 826 tutors interviewed their student and wrote a paragraph about them. In turn, the student did the same about the tutor. We shared our stories and through this met each other. I’ve included two of the stories below – thank you Eric W and Abigail J for your stories.

As the students entered the room their eyes grew ten times bigger in their heads. Many a shocked face exclaimed how wonderful the room looked. Apparently, before we took over and spruced up the room, it had been used for scary things like math and detention. Not only did we change the appearance of the room, but we changed its vibe.
    
Although the majority of the students fell in love with the room instantly, a few needed convincing. One student in particular refused to go to the Writers’ Room the second week we were there, we had not seen him the initial week, after some coercing from the teacher he reluctantly came the final week and I observed him laughing and talking energetically with our tutor, Micaela. I was obvious that he had a good time, and a few days later, when he was asked to come to the room, he put up the same façade, but came none-the-less and had another wonderful time.
    
All the students were excellent, all the tutors were phenomenal, and the teachers that we worked with were stupendously supportive. I look forward to our next project at Everett and the kick-off of the newspaper.

I’d like to introduce you to Enrique and Martin:

Enrique

Enrique is 13 years old and an 8th grader at Everett. He is happiest when he is in Bolivia with his big family. He loves his mom and dad and his six step-siblings. Every summer Enrique goes to Bolivia to see his family. This summer his favorite things to do were camping, fishing, and especially skateboarding. In Bolivia not many people skateboard, so Enrique is a superstar there. He brings new skateboards for his brothers and cousins and shows of all of his new tricks. In Bolivia huge crowds gather to watch him skateboard and sometimes they take pictures for magazines and the newspaper and pay him money for tricks. Every summer they have lots of parties for every occasion with lots of music, drinking, and fireworks. Even though he had to come back, in Bolivia he had the greatest time of his life. He calls his family every Sunday to talk about the fun times they had.

By Abigail Jacobs

Martin

Martin’s earliest memory is from 1992 when he was two years old, and his family came across the border from Mexico to the United States. Martin, his mother and father, his brothers Angel and Carlos, his sister Rosa, and a bunch of his uncles and aunties and cousins started their journey in Jalisco, where they lived. In Martin’s uncle Jesus’s big van, they made the long drive over winding mountain roads to Mexicali. There, at a produce export company, they found a truck driver who said he would take them across the border if they paid him. This driver—the Coyote—cleared out some space in his trailer, and Martin’s family got in the truck. The trip was long and hot; the desert sun beat down on the metal trailer, and Martin and his family were glad they’d brought plenty of water. The scariest moment came at the border, when the American customs agents opened the doors to the trailer. Everyone tried to be really quiet, as they hid behind boxes of produce, If you had to sneeze, it had to be a very quiet sneeze. But they made it over the border, and several hours later were in Los Angeles.

By Eric Wilinski

I look forward to having more of the 826 Valencia tutors participate in this program. Keep an eye out for our upcoming Everett newspaper.

Best,
Quressa Robinson
826 Valencia Volunteer Coordinator