Craft to School

This blog post was written by Sierra Ritz, Girls Write Now Intern.

In celebration of the first week of high school, Girls Write Now hosted a craft-themed Back to School party for mentees!
The night began when mentees arrived to find Girls Write Now program staff already got the party started! There were several stations set up to host DIY projects. Mentees spent the night crafting duct tape pencil cases and creating stickers from old magazines.

As the room filled up, the pizza-man delivered our dinner, and the party was in full swing. We asked the mentees to introduce themselves, and to spice it up, choose which food they would like to wrap in another food. “Pizza wrapped in pizza” was certainly a crowd favorite!
Then, we started filling our 2015 time capsule with memories. Mentees wrote down their “favorites” of 2015, from favorite song to favorite book. At the end of the school year, we will open the time capsule to se how much has changed.
Then, mentees campaigned and voted for Girls Write Now superlatives. Unlike regular superlatives, these had a Girls Write Now twist and included “Best Eyebrows” and “Biggest Fan Girl.” Things heated up when the girls campaigned for votes. Friends Thasfia and Romaissaa playfully challenged each other to win “Who I Would Most Like to be Stuck on a Deserted Island With.” Miraculously, this category ended in a tie!
The competition didn’t stop there! Girls Write Now set the stage for our great 2015 Pun Off. If you don’t know, a Pun Off is a contest where participants compete to come up with the most puns on a specific topic. This year’s topic? School! A handful of girls bravely stood in front, giving their best puns. A crowd favorite was “Me and the boy in my science class have a lot of chemistry.”

As the party wound down, we played brain games on Sporcle and enjoyed the company. New and returning mentees met or reunited, sharing stories from the summer and hopes for the new school year. My favorite part of the night was when the room sporadically exploded in laughter and delight. The Back to School Party was a great and successful event!