ABOUT THE ORIGIN PROJECT

Writing is a valuable, sometimes vital, tool in human endeavour.

Story writing is a particular talent: the memorialisation of personal experiences, tales, and narratives bequeathed by family or friends or teachers or mentors.

The Origin Project is an in-school writing program sprouted six years ago from the idea that Appalachia’s stories are national treasures and its children should celebrate their roots. Our program inspires young people to discover and liberate their inner voices through the craft of writing about their unique origins. It has been enormously gratifying that The Origin Project has evolved into a community of engaged learners focused on diversity and inclusion, capitalizing on the rare chance to expose young people to each other’s unique heritages and to galvanize their curiosity about, and respect for, each other.

The Origin Project has grown organically from 40 students in Big Stone Gap to more than 1,500 students in 17 schools. We regularly import renowned authors—so far, David Baldacci, Meg Wolitzer, Margot Lee Shetterly, Mary Hogan, and Laurie Eustis—to meet with the students and share their personal writing experiences.

Each fall, our students are given a personal journal and thereafter work on multiple projects or stories that speak of and to their heritage. Their work is professionally published year-end in this anthology, presented to each student and made available in school and public libraries. The Origin Project is integrated with the Virginia Standards of Learning curriculum and collaborates with each student at her/his skill level to conceive, develop, and hone ideas into short stories, poems, plays, interviews, or other art.

The students present their work aloud to their peers, parents, teachers, and guests, often at forums such as the Barter Theatre or Mountain Empire Community College. In past years’ anthology unveilings, our student-artists have been congratulated live or by video by Governor Terry McAuliffe, Senator Mark Warner, and Senator Tim Kaine. The First Lady of Virginia Pamela Northam joined us for a recent Kick-off Celebration.

We synergise community and schools to offer heritage-related presentations and incorporate libraries and museums to convey the rôle of history in the present and develop the skill of research. This year, we visited the Civil Rights exhibit at The Birthplace of Country Music Museum and an exposition on immigration at the Library of Virginia.

It is a joyful surprise to read our students’ work, witness their growth, and observe the budding of their self-esteem. Through their creative writing with The Origin Project, our students “hold up a mirror” to themselves and thereby reclaim their “own deepest possession”: themselves and their “own unfolding.”