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stouffvitte suntribune thursday june 15 2006 7 student writers find place in inaugural symposium by hannelore volpe staff writer more than 200 students and teachers from across york region attended a writing symposium that came about because a stouflville parent couldnt find a school geared to writers tom donoghues daugh ter alice has been expressing herself in writing since kindergarten she writes poet ry and prose she loves to write about horses when it was time to look for a high school he found there were programs for dancers drama enthusiasts musicians and artists but nothing for writers although the board couldnt add a writ ing program it began working on what was to become the first ever writers guild symposium he decided to phone the york region district school board to see what could be done although the board couldnt add a writing pro gram to its schools superin tendent of education john havercroft was receptive to mr donoghues plight and began working on what was to become the first ever writ ers guild symposium the symposium called words words words was a chance for students to get excited about writing and be inspired by their peers stouf- fville district secondary school teacher raquel cosme said she took 11 students to the symposium mainly from her grade 9 academic english and grade 12 writ ers craft classes there were workshops on how to get published scriptwriting for the novice slam poetry crime writing journalism and others the symposium took place may 23 at richmond green high school in rich mond hill alice who is 14 has found her grade 9 english class taught by ms cosme to be an inspiration alice is just one writer at sdss who ms cosme wants to encourage with a special writing program next year she would like the stu dents to have a safe space to express themselves in writing many students think you have to do something like work for a newspaper before you can write not so accord ing to ms cosme if you decide to write and find joy in it you are a writer she said kelly doran who is in grade 10 was drawn to the slam poetry workshop which she described as outspoken harsh and loud and meant to be read out loud at the sym posium kelly would eventually like to join the student associa tion of songwriters at sdss to explore songwriting the symposium inspired me seeing the stuff that other teenagers could write she said the 16yearold writes all the time at home about prob lems that are bothering her becoming more motivated and family and friends shes aiming to take jour nalism at either ryerson university or george brown college crime writing holds a fas cination for 15yearold corey knecht the grade 9 student at sdss has been writing for several years but really got jumpstarted with ms cosmes english class corey likes to delve into the characters traits in his stories and see how far i can go with that how much i can relay to the reader after taking the crime writ ing workshop at the sympo sium corey learned how to better deal with missing pieces of information in his stories he said hes planning to write short fantasy stories over the summer alice d0n0ghue stouflville students love of writing led to board creating symposium new coffee shop wants to be cultural hub coffee culture is coming to town with the opening of for the love of jo a bohemi- anstyle coffee house in the heart of stouflville visitors can sample organic and fair trade spe cialties and pastries at the opening saturday from 9 am to 6 pm at 6308 main st the coffee house is owned by musicians grant and jo ivens of the slime dogs ms ivens is running the business which offers speciality coffees soft drinks and pastries our focus is to turn it into a real cultural hub for stouflville mr ivens said the coffee house will fea ture art shows and live music mostly acoustic on saturdays and sunday after noons there will also be free highspeed wireless internet connections at the opening the fam ily quarles is performing celtic music at 1230 pm and ms ivens is singing jazz accompanied by dan irwin on keyboards at 2 pjn the slime dogs perform rock music unplugged at 4 pm the ivens are longtime stouffville residents and operate an advertising com pany in markham for more information on the coffee houses events check out wwwloveofjocom pickering 2215 brock rd n 9056835952 monfri 99 pm saturday 86 pm sunday 95 pm