HOPE: Program finds a way to look ahead through poetry

From Page A1 combat this?’ And I came up with a project where the kids are given a voice and hopefully the end result makes them feel like it’s not hopeless and they can play a part in this,” said Levine.

“The other part is, ‘how can I build hope with them through some of these amazing things people in Davis are doing?’ What I came up with was a curriculum that involved a lot of eco-poetry and a lot of specific prompts for writing poems and then two weeks where I had 10 different business professionals, researchers and educators come in to talk to the kids and tell them about these amazing things they’re doing to work against global warming being the end of the future, that there is a future.”

At the conclusion of this project, the seventhgraders of Da Vinci Junior High School submitted a poem they’d written with most also submitting a recording of themselves reading their poem. These recordings were then uploaded to the website/ app called Hope River, and on Feb. 1, they will be walking along the bike path near school — the shoreline of the metaphorical Hope River — and listening to a progressive telling of their poems through QR codes posted down the path. All of which wouldn’t have been possible without the help of fellow poets Bethanie Humphries and Stanly Zumbiel, Da Vinci Junior High’s Research and Communication teacher Alison Kimmel, English teacher Anna Kieschnick, and science teacher Amy HannonKorynta.

“As a result of this, Julia found a nonprofit press that wants to make a book out of 15-20 of these poems selected by the students, Kimmel said. “Over 60 students submitted their poems and one of the biggest things I’ve seen is a confidence boost in their ability as writers. As this progresses and they hear they may be published authors by the end of this, there’s a huge increase in their confidence. Some of them have discovered they are poets and that they have the ability to write when they didn’t before. We also had a 95% turn-in rate for poems which is an unheard of number.”

The community will have an opportunity to float down Hope River and listen to these poems at an event on March 18. For more information, refer to the Da Vinci Junior High School website, https:// www.davincicharteracademyjh.net/

The Hope River website/ app itself can be found by searching https://agws. app/davis/hope-river/ and was created by Andre Gonzales of Andre Gonzales

Web Services (www.agonzales.dev/).

To view Levine’s latest published work, head to the Avid Reader and look for “Ordinary Psalms” (LSU Press, 2021).

Which such incredible success with this first iteration, these poetic Pandas of Da Vinci Junior High are undoubtedly making a positive impact on the future with their creative writing. And with any luck, they’ll add to the current that will — hopefully — keep Hope River flowing to other school districts in Yolo County and beyond.

— Reach Aaron Geerts at aaron.geerts@ mcnaughton.media.