Sponsor a Student for High School Writing Conference

Sponsor - Send Promising Young Writers to Campus

Sponsor a Student Writer

$50 sends a student writer to an all day conference at Missouri State University. You can make a tax-free contribution for students in your school by checking the "I would like to make this gift in honor of someone" checkbox and writing "students from ___ School." Your donation goes to the Center for Writing in College, Career and Community which is the umbrella organization for the Ozarks Writing Project.

Each year, in a conference for students in grades 5-8 held in May and one for high school students held in December, Ozarks Writing Project brings upwards of 700 students to campus to write under the guidance of talented teacher-writers who want to share their love of writing. Participants gather for an opening session in Plaster Student Union where they are greeted by President Clif Smart. Students attend four sessions that appeal to their interests as writers. To get a taste of campus life, middle school students walk across the campus to Strong Hall for their sessions, and high school students eat in Blair-Shannon Hall.

About last year's high school conference, a teacher wrote, “My students come from a very poor rural district. For many of them this was their first visit to a college campus. They loved the writing today so much that we had our own open mic in the car on the way home. You all have no idea what this meant to these kids.”