The Unaware Project, a collaborative writing journal, is entering its third year with expected publication at the end of the spring 2022 semester. The peer-reviewed journal is similar to the SoundingsLiterary and Visual Arts Journal, but with a ministry twist.
Assistant Professor of English, Nathan Shank, started the project with his Advanced Writing class in the spring of 2020. His class peer-reviewed work by juvenile delinquent students at the Southwest Oklahoma Youth Academy Charter School (OYACS). The pieces they developed were published in a journal and given to the participants at the end of the year.
The students also got to meet in person to see the faces behind the words. Shank said the OYACS students had not even believed at first that people would read what they wrote.
“Originally, we were using Google docs to have our students edit the juvenile’s works, and when we did, they didn’t even know that a human would write something to them – they thought it was a computer at first,” Shank said. “It was moments like that which really changed my mentality to see how impactful this could be and it wasn’t just another writing assignment we have to get through.”
Shank said the project helped students not only minister to others, but also feel the real impact of how their words are perceived.
“I saw it as a chance to remove us a little bit from the privilege we have here which I feel very strongly that we should be using that to help other people’s lives,” Shank said.
The project started when Shank and the Chair of the Language and Literature Department, Gail Nash, met with the director, James Weaver, and English teacher Stephen Saenz from OYACS. They discussed having a collaborative project similar to Soundings between the two groups of students.
In the second edition of the journal, Shank wrote, “The students of OYACS developed their personal and creative voices by expressing their cares through writing that was read and responded to by others, and English Writing Majors at OC developed their editing and community engagement skills.”
Senior English student Ann Magner said the first interaction with the OYACS students was both less personal and more personal than she expected.
“It was very much asynchronous and not personal in the sense that we were seeing them but still very personal in that some of these boys were writing about very difficult topics,” Magner said.
Once she read through the grammatical errors, she said she could see the people behind the writing.
“They very clearly wanted a good future for themselves, it was just a matter of almost seeing people on the ‘outside’ that could believe they could do it,” Magner said.
Near the end of the project, in February, the Oklahoma Christian students visited the detention center in Tecumseh. Magner said the interaction was eye-opening.
“From the outside, my perspective might have been a bit darker, … but they still had that very real optimism, very obvious intelligence and capacity for growth,” Magner said.
After the project, Oklahoma Christian students wrote a reflection of the experience. The essays later ended up in the finished journal. Magner said all the students wanted more from the interaction.
“There was not one student in that class that wasn’t like, ‘I want to do that again, I want to go back,’ like … you learn a whole different kind of compassion,” Magner said.
Nash, who provided department funds at the beginning of the project, said the project was a ministry and a blessing.
“I think there is so much that writing does for the soul, and what I like about the Unaware Project is that it gives a voice to people who haven’t had a voice or maybe haven’t thought their voice was heard,” Nash said.
The OYACS students were scheduled to attend and present their works at Oklahoma Christian’s Celebration of Excellence on April 6, but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. There has been no word on whether the students will present at a future event. However, the Unaware Project will still continue.
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