Humble beginnings 826 Valencia is the brainchild of educator Nínive Calegari and writer Dave Eggers. In 2002, the pair sought to connect San Francisco’s under-resourced students with personalized attention and kindle passions for writing. Their answer? A cozy writing center nestled in the back of a pirate supply shop at 826 Valencia Street in San Francisco. Fifteen years later, the organization
has expanded from one homely venue into six nationwide chapters and earned recognition from major celebrities like Tom Hanks. It also won a $500,000 grant from Google, which funded the creation of a second writing center at 180 Golden Gate Ave. “We find that writing is underserved,” says Tenderloin program coordinator Kona Lai. “There are a lot of after-school programs that focus on sports, for example,
science, [or] coding, but there’s not much that focuses specifically on writing. That’s part of the reason why we decided to open up in the Tenderloin.” “It’s terrifying, but also there’s so much possibility,” Lai says. “Every program that we do is totally different from the one that happened before because it’s never existed before.” While the center initially struggled to attract students, a year after its opening, it expanded from serving 380 students to 2000 students annually. Re(ad)defining learning Student-produced writing is not confined to the walls of 826 Valencia’s writing centers. Through uploading student podcasts to Soundcloud and publishing student work in books, 826 Valencia provides students with the platform to reach readers nationally. “It is very much a sense of pride, especially when students can go, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been published like six times. My story has been published in this book and this book,’” Lai says. To Lai, it is this sense of pride and determination that drives both tutors and students at 826 Valencia to persist in their efforts. “Our goals are to amplify student voices … [and] transform their relationship to writing,” Lai says. Lai recalls the transformation of a particular student who she watched grow from abhorring to adoring writing as a result of his time at 826 Valencia. “He was like, ‘I’m not good at writing. I don’t have anything important to say. Writing is hard, it’s difficult and it’s pain,’” Lai says. “He’d be hard-pressed to complete two sentences. If he got two sentences down, I know he worked hard that day.” After a year of weekly sessions, grueling effort and constant encouragement, the student’s gradual progress finally shone through. “This year, the first week that he was back, he busted out two entire pages, front and back,” Lai says. “I was just like, ‘Oh my LEARNING TO LEAD Program manager Jillian Wasick reflects on the fledgling Tenderloin center’s growth over the past year. Photo by Maraleis Sinton.
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NOVEMBER 2017