Write Like Us program fosters connection to self and community

February 18, 2022

In collaboration with four Minnesota State community colleges in the Twin Cities, Anoka-Ramsey is participating in the inaugural year of an equity-based creative writing program: Write Like Us.

The program brings local and national authors from the BIPOC community together as mentors for students interested in but underrepresented in the creative writing field.

Eight Anoka-Ramsey students were selected for the program by local author mentors and started meeting fall 2021. By providing BIPOC mentees with models of success that look like them, the Write Like Us program hopes to recruit, retain and represent BIPOC students in the college’s Associate of Fine Arts (AFA) and creative writing certificate programs—programs with high rates of persistence, graduation and transfer.

For the students selected, the opportunity has been about creating connection.

Sabrina Lor is a first-year student at Anoka-Ramsey. She came to the college with a passion for reading and writing but didn’t do it a lot. Writing was a form of expression, a way to process feelings. Lor is South Asian and grew up without a worthy representation of what success could look like for her. Lor was selected for the Write Like Us program by local Lao writer Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay. Through the program, Lor hopes to find her voice as a South Asian author, connections to other creative writers on campus and ultimately publish her own short story.

“It’s really awesome to be working with a South Asian author and to connect on experiences when it comes to writing and finding ways to find resources so I can actually establish a foundation in my writing instead of feeling as if I’m not worthy of it because I may not be the target author that many people would like to read from,” shared Lor.

“Being selected for this program gives me the confidence to think anyone is worthy of anything. Anyone can do anything.”

Learn more about each of the students selected for this year’s Write Like Us program at AnokaRamsey.edu/writelikeus

The inaugural year of Write Like Us is funded by a $150,000 Minnesota State Multi-Campus Collaboration grant in support of Minnesota State’s Equity 2030 goals. Minnesota State is a consortium of thirty state colleges and seven universities in Minnesota. Equity 2030 aims to close the educational equity gaps across race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and geographic location by the end of the decade at every Minnesota State college and university.