Five years ago, Alejandra Monge not only dealt with all the challenges of being a tween, but a language barrier was an additional hardship for the San Salvador, El Salvador, native when she arrived in the United States.
However, the now rising junior at Springdale High School found her voice, thanks in part to a summer camp that teaches kids with limited English skills to express themselves through creative writing.
Monge participated in the Write On! summer writing camp facilitated by the Springdale School District and the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project. The co-directors had nothing but praise for the progress Monge has made.
"Two years ago, she started, and she could hardly write anything; she was not very comfortable," said Norma Prentiss, co-director of Write On! "And this year, she's one of the most intelligent, and she's helping us with editing."
Even though she's in more of a senior assistant role this year, Monge doesn't doubt the value of this year's camp.
"It helps me learn English because I'm still learning," she said.
This summer, Write On! entered its seventh year as a way to help teens like Monge in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program express themselves creatively. It took place for five days in early July at Southwest Junior High School in Springdale.
Kimberly Chavez, co-director of the program and assistant principal at Southwest, said the camp came together when she met with educational leaders seven years ago.
"We saw the need in all communication areas: reading, writing, speaking and listening" for the ESL students, Chavez said.
The camp is free to students between seventh and ninth grades enrolled in the Springdale School District.
"Some of them have been born here and others have been here for a couple of years," Chavez said.
Prentiss, a teacher in the Mountain Home School District, said she enjoys coming to Northwest Arkansas every summer for this camp.
"It's just great to work with this age children, because the kids I usually work with are first- or second-graders, so this is kind of different for me," Prentiss said. "It's always fun to see the kind of creativity you can get out of these children.
"With the younger ones, they're just really learning how to read, and these, we are trying to teach them how to use the skills of reading to be able to create their own pieces," she added.
"I think the poetry really jumped out," Chavez said about the work done by this year's crop of students.
Both Chavez and Prentiss lauded the creativity the half-dozen boys in the program expressed through their storytelling and said the themes in their writing include socialization, partying and growing up.
Angel Marin, a native of Jalisco, Mexico, and a rising sophomore at Springdale High School, said in an insouciant manner that the program has taught him "to write better."
The camp culminates with the creation of an anthology of the work the students create each year.
NAN Profiles on 07/13/2014