Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

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KU Student Selected for Writing Wrongs Project to Produce Book in 72-hour Marathon Workshop Labor Day Weekend

Kutztown, PA (08/29/2019) — 15 students from a variety of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York colleges have been selected to labor during this year's Labor Day weekend Writing Wrongs project. During a 72-hour workshop held in Berks County, the students, working as staff writers, photographers, designers and social media managers, will conduct research and interviews, draft articles and design pages for a printed book available for sale through national book sellers that highlights stories of members of the LGBTQ+ community, this year's Writing Wrongs topic.

Among this year's participants is KU student Jamilee Hoffman of Chalfont, Pa., who will serve as the social media manager. Hoffman is a senior communication studies major at KU. Learn more about Hoffman at the Writing Wrongs website.

"Hopefully, I'll be able to make a difference by getting certain issues spread throughout the media," Hoffman said. "This way, issues can reach to whoever they need to (such as a government officials) who will be able to create justice for those issues, even it is only in my surrounding town/community. That change could contribute to the overall change that is needed in the world."

In its fifth year, Writing Wrongs - a community journalism project dedicated to generating awareness and promoting understanding of critical social issues - is the brain child of Dawn Heinbach, a Reading Area Community College and Kutztown University graduate. Heinbach's sophomore year honors project - to develop a community-based journalism workshop to share the stories of local people impacted by societal issues - has grown into a nonprofit organization that has produced one newspaper and three books on a variety of issues ranging from homelessness and addiction, to sexual and domestic abuse.

In discussing the growth of Writing Wrongs, Heinbach said, "every year the program is expanding to include students from a wider radius. We have students from well-known, competitive schools volunteering their time and skills to explore these important issues as they pertain to the residents of Reading. The point to remember when looking at the book and videos they create is that the students accomplish all this in just one weekend."

The LGBT Center of Greater Reading is partnering with Writing Wrongs this year, providing speakers and a space for interviews with members of the LGBT community whose stories will frame this year's book.

Learn more about Writing Wrongs at www.seekreporttruth.com.

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