Poetry. Collaboration. Community. Tapping the Hard Work and Guidance Of An Amazing Student Leader.

For the last few years, Charlotte Pecquex has been working under the mentorship of poet, Carol Ann Davis, and Writing Center Director, Beth Boquet, to reach out into communities of Connecticut through the Newtown Poetry Project, Cathedral Academy, and the Parkway School. With partial support from Connecticut Writing Project-Fairfield, their work has mentored hundreds of kids to compose, express, heal, wonder, explore, and create.

The picture to the right was created by Charlotte in her senior year as part of the service-learning she's taken a leadership role with. Last November, I had the honor of co-presenting with their team at the National Council of Teachers of English conference in DC. The audience was favorably impressed - in fact, several educators from Ferguson wondered how they could do similar community work to help young people in their communities.

When the poster was sent to me in celebration of Charlotte's work, I couldn't help but beam with pride. The work of their team has been amazing and I feel honored to have CWP-Fairfield listed as collaborators and supporters of writing projects that make a difference.

Charlotte will be presenting her leadership work at several conferences on campus, showcasing her skill-set, design, maturity, and craft. I am writing today to simply shout out to an amazing student who has found a way to bring her learning at Fairfield University to life.