UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 18, Page 4
February 6, 1992
Project encourages creativity in student authors

     Nancy King, professor in the University Honors Program, has made a
career out of using stories to inspire creativity in her students.
     Last semester, she offered the Stories Project, a service-learning
course that combined academic learning with community service. The
project paired Honors students with children aged 6-14 from Newark area
schools.
     The University students had an interest in learning about the
facilitation of oral and written creative expression. Their young
counterparts were children who needed extra experience in oral and
written language development.
     Working one-on-one, the University students selected books from the
UNICEF collection in the University's Educational Resources Center and,
each week, shared a story from a different continent with an elementary
school child. After hearing the story, the children and the University
students painted images and created new stories. Each pair met a
half-dozen times during the semester.
     At the project's end, the stories and art works were laminated and
bound with funding from the Honors Program and the Center for
Intercultural Teacher Education. The collected works were displayed in
the showcase in the Willard Hall Education Building.
  *  Following are a few of the stories from the project.  In the first
two, the authors explore a fantasy.

  "Looking for gold at Mount St. Helens"
by Daniel Troutman, a child enrolled in the project
     One day, I went looking for gold. I went to Mount St. Helens to see
if I could find gold there. When I got to Mount St.  Helens, I started
digging into it to look for some gold.
     After I was digging for a while, the volcano erupted. Big clouds of
smoke and fire shooted from the volcano. But, so did a big pot of gold.
I stood at the bottom of the mountain and caught the pot of gold as it
came down.
     I had so much gold now. I gave half of the money to the poor.  I
gave a little bit to my family. The rest I put in the bank for when I'm
older. I added it to the $57 I already have in the bank.
     Also, with some of the gold, I traded it for money. Then I bought a
pet snake that I always wanted. I also bought Nintendo.

    Untitled
by Clare MacDonald, University student
     One day as the princess was riding across the prairie, she came
upon a beautiful young girl, crying. The princess immediately stopped
and asked the girl what was wrong....The girl said that her father was
going to make her marry this guy who she could not stand.
     The princess saw that the girl was too small to wrestle any man,
but she knew that there were ways to get rid of her annoying fiance'.
So the princess suggested a way and told the girl to try it and report
back the next day. That night, the girl was really rude and obnoxious to
her fiance.  She acted disgusting. It worked! The annoying fiance went
to the girl's father and refused to marry her.
     The father was really angry, but the girl didn't mind because she
didn't want to stay with the old tyrant anyway. To this day, she rides
the plains with the princess and all the king's horses, and together
they help other girls to save themselves from unwanted marriages.

  *  In these next two stories a University student and a child explore
the same theme-losing someone you love.
  "My Granddad"
by Jason Wardell, a child enrolled in the project
     My granddad was smoking a lot. That's how he got his heart attack.
When I was 4, he died. A song came on that reminded me of my granddad,
because when he died we were listening to the radio and a song came on.
I miss him.

  "My very story"
by Kathleen Schafer, University student
     Almost two years ago-can it be that long?-I was very, very sad.  My
Dad had not been feeling well, and I was getting ready to go to a speech
competition on Saturday.
     Something went wrong.  I'm not sure exactly what happened, but our
neighbors came by and brought my Dad to the hospital.  The ambulance
wouldn't come.
     After having everyone in the house, rushing around, suddenly I was
alone-dressed up and supposed to compete in speech for my school.
     My friend came up to my house so we could go together, and I cried.

  * These next two stories are about memories the authors hope to some
day share with their grandchildren.
  "50 years from now"
by Mike, a student enrolled in the program
     When I was younger, I played basketball with a friend of mine. We
were both on the team. We were ahead in the game and only needed one
more point to win. The other team needed two more. My team passed me the
ball. I shot for the hoop, and then I made it.
     Our team won.
     I would tell my grandson this story to help him win a game, too.

  "Remember"
by Amy Castelli, University student
     When I was a little girl, I lived in a red brick house with a big
backyard and lots of trees and space to play. My sister and I played
outside all the time. It was wonderful. In the winter, my Mother dressed
us in bright red snowsuits because she didn't want to lose us in the
snow. She said the winter made the yard look like the Russian tundra. I
don't know if you, my grandchildren, will have trees and space to play.
But, once upon a time, there was such a thing as room to grow.

   * Some of the authors wrote about the Stories Project itself.
University student Joanna Hart, for example, wrote about how much she
loved the project and how glad she was to have chosen the course.
     In turn, Frank Brown, one of the children in the project, wrote
that he liked the project a lot. "It was fun," he wrote. "The teacher
was very nice and friendly. I like writing stories and painting.
     "I also liked getting out of some classes," he wrote. The Stories
Project will be offered again in the spring of l993.
     Area schools interested in participating should call the Honor's
Program, at 831-1195.  -Beth Thomas