New Canaan Student Writers Recognized

Who: 

Gwenan Walker, 4th grade, East School

Bartholomew Codd, 3rd grade, South School

Sarah Carstensen, 2nd grade, South School

Alyssa Khoo, 3rd grade, South School

Lauren Sampson, 4th grade, South School

Kaitlyn Sill, 2nd grade, South School

Caroline Brooks, 2nd grade, West School

Charlie Panella, 2nd grade, West School

Xander Welty, 2nd grade, West School

Evie Wittmann, 2nd grade, West School

Achievement:

On May 10, these young writers were honored at the University of Connecticut for their submissions to the  Connecticut Writing Project's annual publication, the Connecticut Student Writers magazine.

Accompanied by Darren Bruce, the Writing Specialist at East and West Schools, the students were saluted for their selection from over 900 entries. According to Bruce about eighty were published and another 100 were recognized with honorable mention. The Writing Specialist at South is Nicole Kingston.

Poems submitted by: Brooks and Panella, whose teacher is Maria Moccia; Sill who is taught by Diane Johnson; Sampson whose classroom teacher is Jeff Kohn; and Walker who is taught by Carolyn Vandall, were chosen for publication in the 2011 edition of the magazine.

Receiving honorable mention for prose and poetry entries were: Welty and Wittmann who are also taught by Moccia; Codd and Khoo whose teacher is Paula Passero and Carstensen, taught by Shannon Mackeil.

Key to Awesomeness:

As Bruce explained in an email to Patch, "It was a delight to see our talented writers receive the recognition they deserve. Every day they approach their writing assignments with enthusiasm, dedication and creativity. Of course, these students represent just a small sampling of the writing talent we see on a daily basis at the elementary schools. The success of these particular students is a testament to the success of New Canaan's writing program in general, made possible by New Canaan's teachers, administrators and most of all its young writers."