Jan. 24, 2010
Shawnee State University's Professor Neil Carpathios, Ph.D., and three of his students, Velma Brehm, Christina Jones and Lori Mcnelly have been introducing creative writing to teenage girls at Bridges residential center for teenage girls on Second Street in Portsmouth.
The girls wrote their own poetry and stories to share with the class and at the end of the session, Carpathios had a balloon ready for each girl, where they attached a note written with something they wanted to let go of and tied it to a balloon to release outside.
"We have tried to keep things flexible and let the girls determine the direction of the class," Mcnelly said. "The girls really impressed me with their honesty and they really are trying to better themselves."
As many as 12 girls attended the class. The girls wrote in several styles, some wrote poetry, some wrote stories.
"We had a variety of exercises for them," Jones said. "We tried to help them express themselves through writing."
Wednesday, Jan. 19 was the last Creative Writing session since Bridges will be closing the end of January.
Students Brehm, Jones and Mcnelly coordinated and directed the sessions.
"Sometime in the future, we hope to be doing more sessions maybe in a different way," Carpathios said. "The students did a wonderful job."
