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Writing partners reap special friendships

Over spring semester, Ethel I. Baker Elementary School fifth-grader Byron Patterson and Sacramento State freshman Vladimiro Naranjo shared their thoughts in a series of letters they wrote to one other. On Tuesday, in a special University gathering, the pair finally got to meet face to face.

They had become friends in the Writing Partners Program, a Community Engagement Center literacy project that lets first-year Sacramento State students cultivate writing relationships with local elementary schoolchildren.

The University partners this semester were 89 students in the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), which helps students from migrant and seasonal farmworker families succeed at Sacramento State. They participated as part of an Ethnic Studies course designed for CAMP students.

Rosana Chavez, CAMP retention counselor, says the benefits became apparent as the series of three letter exchanges progressed with 120 pupils at Baker Elementary in Sacramento. The college students developed a “sense of mentoring,” taking lessons they’ve learned about success and passing them on to the youngsters.

Tuesday’s outdoor gathering brought fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade pupils together to share their final letters with their partners.

Byron Patterson, 11, beamed while talking with Naranjo, a Business major. “He’s fun,” the boy said, noting they are “both into video games.” Byron says he “thinks it would be fun” to attend college and learn science and art – he likes drawing Spider-Man.

Naranjo says the gathering “brought back good memories” because he had a writing partner when he was a child, though it wasn’t part of a program.

Natividad Chavez, a Geology major, was thrilled the children were so excited. “They were so motivated to be here, asking so many questions about college. They really want to go.”

Fifth-grade teacher Susan Zimmerman said her pupils couldn’t wait to get their letters. “It got them excited about writing, which is difficult to do at this age.”

Writing Partners was the invention of a nonprofit organization called Write to Succeed, Inc. Launched at Sacramento State in the summer of 2005, it has run every semester since in courses such as nursing, teaching, and composition.