This month, Wilson HGA took part in honoring some of the city’s most aspiring student journalists in the WriteBoston program. WriteBoston, founded in 2002 by Mayor Thomas Menino, is a non-profit organization that provides student writing opportunities and educator training programs in an effort to help students become skilled, academic writers.
One of WriteBoston’s most popular programs is Teens in Print, Boston’s only citywide newspaper written by and for teens, ages 15 to 18 years old. Since its start in 2004, the paper has given more than 1,200 teens a platform to share their journalistic abilities. Each issue, student contributors have the opportunity to win a cash prize and a special mention in the upcoming issue of Teens in Print for their writing submission, via the Rising Voices Award. Three winners are chosen by a panel of judges from a Boston-area corporate sponsor. For the second year in a row, Wilson HGA had the pleasure of serving as the judges for this month’s issue.
Each submission was judged on criteria such as sentence structure, tone, grammar, and creative content. It was not an easy decision choosing the winners—the Wilson HGA team was blown away by the talent of the young writers, and their ability to produce well-researched, thought-provoking pieces on a variety of topics. After determining the winners, the Boston office hosted the Rising Voices Awards Ceremony, in which the three winners visited Wilson HGA, giving us the chance to meet the young journalists and learn more about their backgrounds and aspirations. It was an inspiring day for all.
This special opportunity gave us a chance to see how WriteBoston and Teens in Print is positively affecting the lives of young journalists and serving as the voice of young adults in the city of Boston. We look forward to seeing all of the wonderful things this organization continues to do for Boston’s aspiring young writers.
For more information on WriteBoston and its Teens in Print program, visit WriteBoston. Read the award-winning submissions here.
