In a recent article, The Capital Times put a spotlight on the Greater Madison Writing Project (GMWP) as its celebrated its 10th anniversary.
“It’s not the 10-year anniversary that we expected, but it’s one that makes me really confident that whatever comes next, we have strong roots and strong branches,” said Bryn Orum, an outreach specialist for both the GMWP and UW-Madison’s School of Education.
A collaboration between UW-Madison’s School of Education and the College of Letters and Science, the program is a part of the National Writing Project and offers writing workshops to teachers and students in the Madison area.
Originally started in the 1980s, the GMWP closed 10 years later, only to be revived in 2010 by the current director, Mark Dziedzic.
Dziedzic, also an outreach specialist with the School of Education, came to the program with almost no background.
“As soon as I started researching the National Writing Project and the core practices and philosophies, I knew immediately, these are my people,” Dziedzic, who also was a teacher with a math background, told The Capital Times. “Had I found them when I was still teaching in the classroom, I would probably never have left the classroom.”
Starting out as a small summer institute, GMWP has added programs and initiatives like the Young Writers Camp, a summer advocacy writing camp for high school students. GMWP also recently launched a program called “Who we are: Voices in our community,” a joint effort with the Madison Metropolitan School District’s Transition Education Program, which highlights writing by students experiencing homelessness.
Now, like many organizations across the world, GMWP has had to adjust to the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic. According to The Capital Times, Orum and Dziedzic adapted quickly, moving their normal offerings of development opportunities online. While originally skeptical of online learning, both have been surprised with its success, although they still prefer face-to-face instruction.
“I take great comfort in knowing that even with Zoom fatigue that everybody has and uncertainty in what we’re doing at all, people are showing up week after week to write, to listen to each other, and just to wave to each other,” Orum said.
Read more at The Capital Times.