Providing students with a new perspective, the Creative Writing class revisited an old project titled “Generations in Ink,” where students travel to the Peter Becker Community to interview residents and write their stories.
Creative Writing teacher Krysten Momsen led the class through the project for the first time in 10 years.
Momsen believes that the project was “such a success” and she wants to try to do it for each Creative Writing class.
The Generations in Ink project is a collection of creative stories written about the residents’ lives by students.
Students first met the Peter Becker residents.
Students then prepared questions for their assigned resident and interviewed them.
After the interview, students took the time to listen back to audio recordings of the interviews and write stories based on the residents’ accounts.
Once the stories were published, residents and students met for a luncheon on April 3 to share the stories and reflect on the experience.
Momsen received a lot of positive student response on the project.
“[The students] got a lot out of the project,” Momsen said.
Some students shared that this project would be something they would remember forever when looking back on their high school career.
Creative writing student Ella Singley recalled her thoughts on the project.
“I was a little bit nervous at first, but when I got to know my resident, my nerves faded away and I was quickly made comfortable,” Singley said. “My favorite part was getting to know my resident and learning her story and gaining lessons from her.”
Creative writing student Jess Dymond felt similar to Singley.
“It was a great way to learn both about the residents and relate to them,” Dymond said.
Peter Becker resident Allan Elverson believed that the project was “well-structured” and is something that should be an annual event.
“I thought it would be very interesting to get a young person’s perspective on things,” Elverson said. “I really enjoyed hearing their perspective and being able to pass on some of my experiences to somebody new.”
Creative writing student Sarah Hill shared that the project was “mutually beneficial” between her and her resident.
“We both got a lot out of it. For me, it was great to learn these lessons from such a great person and I believe that she had a good time getting to talk about herself and share her story with somebody. After a while, it felt like we were old friends,” Hill said.