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Encouraging The Next Hemingway: Unique South Coast Camp Gets Kids Excited About Writing

In a classroom on the California Lutheran University campus in Thousand Oaks, some two dozen elementary school students are at summer camp. But, there’s no swimming, archery or arts and crafts here. These students are here for what’s called the Young Writer’s Camp.

About 100 students from the Pleasant Valley School District in Camarillo are participating. Students say the program makes learning fun. The students are here because the enjoy writing, even if their friends don’t necessarily understand why they’d want to go to a writing camp.

In addition to the experience, the students walk away from the camp with a book featuring their first published works, something they can look back on as they continue their educations.

The Young Writer’s Camp involving the Pleasant Valley District and UC Santa Barbara’s South Coast Writing Project is a new collaboration. But, it’s one of many camps organized by the Writing Project. Since the early 1990’s, the non-profit program has helped thousands of young writers from Thousand Oaks to Santa Maria.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
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