What’s your favorite book and who is your favorite author?
My favorite book right now is Belle Prater’s Boy. I like the mystery because Aunt Bella left at night and Prater, the nephew of Aunt Belle, also wants to go so he follows her.
Do you have any special hobbies or talents?
My special hobby is basically doing video games like Just Dance, and my talent is swimming.
What is your favorite thing about writing?
I like that we can express ourselves. [Writing] might show something in your life that people might not know, like writing about my sensitive stomach or my surgery.
What’s your favorite memory of 826CHI?
My first day. I remember that I had Emily [a tutor] and I had to fill-out a whole bunch of papers about myself. It made me feel more comfortable because people knew who I was.
What’s something you’ve written that you liked?
The poem that we did today. I like that I could express six things about my life.
Your story “Canada Is Cold!” is very entertaining. I love the part when Leilita helps her friend Foxy. It’s very nice of her to push him back in a sled to Oklahoma! What do you like about your story?
I like how friends help each other.
What inspired you to write “Canada Is Cold!?”
In school I don’t write that much so I just tried to write as much as I could.
There’s a competition in your story. What’s a competition that you’ve won before? Or a game you like to play?
Once I won at army crawl, boys versus girls. All 15 boys and girls had to do army crawl under each other and whoever got there first won $10. I won and bought a notebook for my aunt.
Do you have writing advice for other students?
To check grammar. Grammar is really important because it shows how you write. And how you can write a really good story.
I know you’re a big fan of the Latin American comic strip, Mafalda. What’s one of your favorite Mafalda sayings?
My aunt sent my mom a funny one recently. “Me quite la playera, me quite los tacones, no, mejor me vaya mi a la escuela en la cama!” I feel like that on Saturdays. When I’m really hyper I climb walls.
What’s something else you want the world to know about you?
That if you think I’m scared of things, I actually touched a poisonous snake when I was two. I was at the museum and you could touch the animals, and I touched the snake.
What’s your favorite animal?
Coyotes! Coyotes are silent and they know how to catch prey.
Our 826 Day event on the roof of Ace Hotel Chicago was a beautiful celebration of our community from our donors to our students and everyone in between (pictured above is 826CHI supporter TASHA’s performance). Our book P.S. You Sound Like Someone I Can Trust was available in the hotel’s suites, Ace Hotel Chicago has hosted our annual love-themed print show featuring work by local artists inspired by our students writing on love, and their Senior Sales Manager, Tenasha Wilcoxon, spoke to our students in After-School Tutoring & Writing’s Speakers & Snacks series about what it’s like to work at a hotel.
The partnership between East Village Youth Program and 826CHI is a yearly collaboration to help students achieve their goal of being accepted into their college of choice and for many to be the first in their family to attend college. This fall, 826CHI staff and 12 volunteers worked with 13 high school seniors on their personal statements for college applications. The partnership continues in the Spring when 826CHI and volunteers will return to EVYP to support students as they apply for scholarships.
