Tess Tarchak-Hiss, a rising West High School senior, stood before 150 people at a National Writers Series fundraiser to explain what years of taking our Raising Writers classes had meant to her. Held at the lush headquarters of the Grand Traverse Land Conservancy, golden pops of black-eyed Susans swayed behind her as she seemed to look everyone in the eye as she was speaking.

Before taking an NWS Raising Writers class, Tess told the crowd, “I knew I had a voice, I just wasn’t sure exactly how to express it.” After that, she was hooked, taking nearly every creative writing class offered to high schoolers. But it was a sketch comedy writing class that sealed her life plans. “Humor helped me solidify who I was and what I wanted to do, which is to be a TV writer … Through Raising Writers, I’v

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