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 Ģ������ƵStories      January 29, 2025

By Bill Studenc

Ģ������Ƶ’s Department of English Studies hosted a creative writing competition with divisions for North Carolina high school students and Ģ������Ƶundergraduate and graduate students as part of its annual Spring Literary Festival.

The contest, held during the 2024 spring semester, was supported by $6,000 in 1889 Impact Grants through donations to the Fund for WCU.

Winners read from their works during an April 3 session at the festival, attended by numerous Ģ������Ƶstudents and faculty along with two busloads of students from Swain County High and Mountain Discovery Charter schools.

It marked only the second year of competition for high school students, and submissions increased 121%, from 80 to 177, said Annette Debo, head of the Department of English Studies.

“The goal of this event is to recruit students for Ģ������Ƶand to encourage current students to become active alumni through their involvement in the Literary Festival,” Debo said. “Celebrating our current students in this way assists in class success and retention. It also offers students an opportunity to present their work publicly and to receive feedback from professionals, contributing to career preparation.”

Senior Lillie Wieder, an English major from Salisbury, won first place in the festival’s undergraduate fiction-writing contest.

“Participation in the Literary Festival's Creative Writing competition has given me the confidence to submit my writing to publications and competitions outside of WCU. Hearing a professional's adjudication of my work helped me realize the strengths of my own writing. Knowing these strengths allows me to play to these strengths, along with helping me analyze my weaknesses,” Wieder said.

“I am just one of many people who benefited from this contest. Students from grad school, undergraduates like myself and high schoolers were all able to take advantage of this unique opportunity,” she said.

Weider said she was grateful for the philanthropic gifts to the Fund for Ģ������Ƶthat support the 1889 Impact Grants Program.

“Thank you so much for making this contest a reality. This writing competition is a vital part of the annual Literary Festival. The chance to get my writing seen by a professional writer is priceless,” she said. “These donations supported writers at many different points in their academic careers and may inspire them to pursue writing more seriously, as it did for me.”

Launched in 2021, the 1889 Impact Grants Program is designed to provide a consistent source of funding for colleges and other units at Ģ������Ƶin support of initiatives that enhance the engagement of alumni and community stakeholders with the philanthropic activities of the university.

Funding for the program comes from annual contributions to the Fund for WCU, including leadership gifts from members of the 1889 Club, which recognizes donors for gifts made on an annual basis to the Fund for WCU. The club, among four giving societies established by the Division of Advancement to celebrate the impact of philanthropy on the institution, is named in honor of the year of WCU’s founding.

Campus partners requested more than $176,000 in 1889 Impact Grants through 23 campuswide grant applications for the 2023-2024 academic year, and the Division of Advancement allocated $47,000 overall for 12 projects, a slight increase from the $43,500 in grant funding awarded last year.

The Ģ������ƵFoundation Board Executive Committee reviews all submissions and selects the awardees in the fall of each year. In addition to the 1889 Impact Grants Program, the Fund for Ģ������Ƶprovides first-year access scholarships to new incoming freshmen and transfer students and supports ongoing donor stewardship efforts. To learn more about the 1889 Impact Grants Program, visit the Fund for Ģ������Ƶwebsite.