In collaboration with the Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation
and Charlotte Terry,Pam Proctor created and coordinates
the Teen Writers Workshop, a series of
free half-day seminars designed to introduce high school students
to professional novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists, and
nonfiction book writers.
Since its founding in Vero Beach, Florida, in July 2000, the Teen
Writers Workshop has conducted eighteen workshops, including three
in the Indian River Correctional Institution for teen felons adjudicated
as adults. Nearly 1000 high school students from six Florida counties
have participated in the program, which has received support from
the National Endowment for the Arts, the State
of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Council
of Indian River County, and Quail
Valley Charities, Inc.
Aspiring novelist Rainey Mills (center) received honors as a Writing
Fellow of the Teen Writers Workshop on April 26, 2008. The award
was presented to Rainey by bestselling suspense writer David
Hagberg and Suzanne Bertman, a representative of Quail
Valley Charities, Inc. Students who attend three workshops
and submit a piece of writing are eligible for the award, which
is given to the top five percent of teens participating in the
nationally acclaimed writing program.
Listen
to thriller writer David
Hagberg's
radio interview with host Marcia Littlejohn on Treasure & Space
Coast Radio
David Hagberg, Forge Books
Photo Credit: Jere Pechstein
Free Teen Writers Workshop!
1-4 P.M., Saturday, September 6, 2008
Richardson Center
Indian River State College Mueller Campus
Vero Beach, Florida
Funded by Quail Valley Charities, Inc.
Guest speaker: Lisa Zahner, Executive Director of Dollars for Scholars of Indian River County
Topic: How to Write Winning Essays for College and Scholarships
Lisa Zahner, Executive Director of Dollars for Scholars of Indian River County, reads and rates hundreds of scholarship essays annually. Among her many roles, Zahner is responsible for the recruitment, selection and management of scholarship candidates and recipients of scholarships funded by local donations, bequests and foundation grants. Over the past 43 years, such gifts have enabled Dollars for Scholars to give away more than $6 million in need-based college scholarships to more than 2,300 local scholars. Scholarship information will be available at the September 6 workshop and can also be obtained by calling Dollars for Scholars at 772-569-9869.
Prior to joining Dollars for Scholars in 1999, Zahner worked as a journalist for six years, writing for Florida Today, the Press Journal Luminaries section, Florida People magazine, and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. She also did stints as a tutor for the SAT, ACT and FCAT writing assessment, an experience that paved the way to her current position with Dollars for Scholars. Zahner is a native Floridian and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Florida Atlantic University, where she was a Schmidt Presidential Scholar.
Dollars for Scholars Executive Director Lisa Zahner (center) with 2008 scholarship recipients Sarah Miller and Marcel Wolff.
Photo highlights from June 21 workshop with poet-rancher Sean Sexton. Sexton showed students a still life he had painted and asked them to write a poem about it. Photo credits: Lauren Allik
As Hanoi University faculty and students crowd around, Pam signs
her book, POINTS OF LIGHT: a Celebration of the American Spirit
of Giving, co-authored with artist Thomas Kinkade and featuring
a foreword by the first President George Bush (photo by William
Proctor).
"We are trying to … start a fire
within them to be the best they can be." — Pam
Proctor, The Viet
Nam News
In May 2007, Pam led a team of six writers to Hanoi, Vietnam, for
a week-long series of writing workshops at Hanoi University, the premier
university for language study in Vietnam and a growing powerhouse in
business education.
The workshops were attended by teachers from the university’s
English and business departments, as well as by faculty members from
three other universities. The workshops replicated a successful
series she led at Hanoi University in 2004 with a team of seven writers,
whose work was underwritten in part by a cultural exchange grant from
the State of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs.
A strategy meeting in the conference room of
the President of Hanoi University.
Things are looking up for Bill Proctor,
who takes a peek at a student’s writing sample during
a workshop on nonfiction writing.
Pam lectures on journalistic techniques to a
class of teachers and top students at Hanoi University (photo by
William Proctor).
