Hambrick’s Scholar-Authors Enjoy ‘Red-Carpet’ Treatment

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More than 20 students at Hambrick Middle School enjoyed a limousine ride, lunch and a field trip on March 9.

The students worked in a variety of writing genres and by the end of the first semester they had completed and published more than 60 original works. Each scholar-author not only wrote their works but also illustrated them. The genres the students worked in included graphic novels, poems, expository essays, memoirs, autobiographies, personification guides, mysteries, and informational texts. The students also developed their drafting, revising, crafting, proofing and editing skills. In addition, they published their works to make them feel like real authors.

To celebrate their accomplishment, the young authors enjoyed a limousine ride while on a field trip to Minute Maid Park and the Toyota Center as well as lunch at Rosita’s Restaurant. Gridiron Music/Gridiron Foundation, Inc., Dimensions by Dan, Inc. Limousine Service, and Rosita’s Restaurant served as business partners for Hambrick Middle School’s Club Excellence of Scholar-Authors.

English teachers Dorothy Ingram, Michael Stephens and Tanya Aikens sponsor the campus’ Club Excellence of Scholar-Authors.

Ingram established Club Excellence in the 2000-2001 school year at Worsham Elementary. In later years, she spearheaded the club at Johnson Elementary School and currently at Hambrick Middle School. She developed the program to encourage students write.

“I want students to realize and experience how cool it is to read and write,” said Ingram. “I thought that by helping them publish their works that it would encourage our young scholar-authors to write while at the same time help them hone their writing skills.”

The students have also enjoyed the experience.

“Club Excellence helped me with my writing,” said Michael Martínez, seventh grade student at Hambrick Middle School. “Then I became a published author of a book entitled Confrontation.”

“In Club Excellence, writing became more than composition,” said Tavares Bazile, eighth grade student at Hambrick and author of Right vs. Wrong. “Publishing helped me to feel important on paper. Club Excellence went way beyond just writing in school.”

“I enjoyed the whole writing process in Club Excellence, but learning how to publish my work rocked!” exclaimed Savanah Okorn, eighth grade student at Hambrick and author of American Pride.

“Ideas and solutions in my head mattered in Club Excellence,” said Tonya McCoy, student at Hambrick and author of Violence. “I could put my feelings on paper and go through the whole writing process. Publishing was hard work, but FUN!”

“Writing was real. It was meaningful and fun,” said Leo Pérez, student at Hambrick and author of Football Mode. “The writing, illustrating, and publishing process took a lot of time, but I handled my writing business like a pro.”

For more information about the program or how you can be a business partner, contact Hambrick Middle School at (281) 985-6570.