Higher Ed Utah

Mercedes Baca dreams of writing a novel before she is 16. It is her passion, but the 14-year-old Highland Junior High School student knows she has to start somewhere, so she signed up for Ogden School District’s summer writing workshop, “An Expedition into the World of Words.”

The two-week course is a partnership between Weber State University and Ogden School District. The class runs 2.5 hours four days a week for two weeks and is funded through a Gear Up grant given to the district’s junior high schools to promote higher education.

Grant administrators Kate Bi deaux and Carrie Maxson approached WSU professors Sarah Vause-Snow and her dad, Mike Vause, to teach the course, which is based loosely on Henry David Thoreau’s writings.

Vause-Snow jumped at the chance, not only to teach the course with her dad, but to work with junior high students, something new for her. She teaches at WSU and at the district’s adult high school.

She and her dad co-wrote the curriculum for the course to make it unique.

“We wanted it to be an adventure,” Vause-Snow said.

Read the entire article at standard.net.