Last year, 916 Ink began a long-term investment in the students at Grant High School in Del Paso Heights. Young people at Grant High, which lies in the Twin Rivers Unified School District, are 3 times more likely to drop out of high school than the regional average (CA Department of Education 2017). Of those students that do graduate, 53% don’t meet California ELA standards (CAASPP 2018). Our mission at 916 Ink has always been to empower youth through creative writing — and the opportunity to work in an environment where the need is so high was one that we could not ignore. For all of these reasons, we are proud to announce our involvement in a new program at Grant High School: The Innovator's Academy. This program aims to address the root cause of low academic performance as well as inspire youth to read, write, and innovate.
Innovator’s Academy is a collaborative of four organizations – Neighborhood Wellness Foundation, 916 Ink, Square Root Academy, and Social Venture Partners of Sacramento – which will advance literacy and STEM outcomes for 60 students at Grant who are most at risk of dropping out. Through our proven creative writing method, we intend to improve GPAs and ELA scores while decreasing truancy and suspension rates. We believe we can help these students towards improved academic outcomes through a targeted approach that focuses on addressing trauma, building social-emotional skills, and driving improvements in key subjects like literacy and math.
One of the most important aspects of this program is providing a safe space that builds trust and understanding. When students feel safe to tell their stories and express themselves through the written word, it builds confidence and inspires a positive learning environment which extends into the rest of their coursework.
“I love to see the way these kids inspire and encourage each other,” remarked Isabel Geerer, our Wordslinger working with the students at Grant. “Best of all is how they react when they hear the beautiful work their classmates have written. I love hearing them cheer each other on and seeing them hug and high five each other.”
“Each student and even every volunteer in that room has a unique voice and brings something special to the table,” continued Isabel. “There is an amazing poet in that room writing pages of heartfelt poetry. She is slowly coming out of her shell as her class encourages her to share. We have a tough guy who turned out to be a lyricist. We have a class clown with a quick wit who is learning to use his power to entertain in his writing. We have an aspiring RN who knows exactly where she's going and how she's getting there.”
“This is not an easy group. Each one is dealing with things I will probably never know about. But most days when I walk out of there, I'm so inspired I feel like I'm walking on air.”
