A cross-state trek to YSU's English Festival
For Tiffany Profera, the English Festival at Youngstown State University is about as good as it gets, even if it’s a seven-hour roundtrip journey.
“It is so refreshing to spend an entire day with students, teachers, authors and other professionals who share a love and passion for reading and writing,” says Profera, who teaches freshmen high school English. “This festival is what teaching English is all about: to foster that love of reading and writing in students, every day.”
This week Profera brings five of her students from Tinora High School in Defiance County, Ohio, near the Indiana state line, all of the way across the Buckeye State to attend the annual YSU English Festival.
Profera’s group will be among about 3,000 students from 200 middle and high schools at the Festival April 10, 11 and 12 on campus, taking part in reading and writing, interacting with celebrated authors, and; competing for awards in art, music and writing. Featured this year are award-winning authors Neal Shusterman and Steve Sheinkin.
Tinora is among a dozen schools that are first-time participants at the Festival, now in its 41st year. This year, nearly 30 schools are traveling more than 60 miles to attend. But Tinora, at nearly 220 miles, is making the longest trek.
Profera first attended the Festival in 2013 when she was a student teacher candidate at Kent State University. “What I actually remember about the festival was the dinner for teachers the night before,” she said. “We sat at a table with author Nikki Grimes. I was most enthralled with the fact that I was sharing dinner with a real-life author. It was at this moment that I was most inspired to continue along my journey as an English/language arts educator.”
Fast forward five years to 2018, and Profera was completing her fifth year of teaching at Stryker High School in Williams County, Ohio. “I had remembered my experience at the English Festival, did some research and found that, with administrative support, I could take my own students to the Festival,” she said. And that she did, taking six Stryker students to the event last year.
“Once again, I was enamored with the experience, and for a fifth-year teacher, it was just the encouragement I needed to remind me that I was still in the right career,” she said.
So, this past summer, when she changed schools to Tinora High School, it was only natural that she would introduce her new students at her new school to the Festival experience.
To attend the Festival, students must read seven books, and teachers monitor their reading progress throughout the year. This year’s list includes four books by Shusterman and three by Sheinken.
For more information on the Festival, including full schedules for each day, visit http://www.ysuenglishfestival.org/index.html. Festival co-chairs are Angela Messenger, coordinator of the YSU Writing Center; Jeff Buchanan, YSU professor of English; and Gary Salvner, YSU emeritus professor of English and retired chair of the Department of English.