Write Out mentors empower after-school students to identify as storytellers
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UPDATE: This story was updated at 10:06 p.m. on Sept. 8, 2026.
Around a table at the North Side Learning Center, a group of young Afghan refugees, who didn’t speak English, leaned in as their cousin translated a volunteer’s writing instructions from English into Farsi.
Many of Write Out’s students are multilingual, but that doesn’t stop them from learning the art of storytelling.
“After two or three years we’ll see their confidence grow in writing and talking in English,” Jacob Gedetsis, founder of Write Out, said. “It’s so cool to see that starting place a couple months later read a poem in multiple languages to a crowd.”
Write Out is a free, year-round creative writing workshop for children and teens that partners with Syracuse community centers to facilitate creative writing workshops for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Started in 2020, Write Out was inspired by a class Gedetsis took while pursuing his master’s in creative writing at Syracuse University. The class, “Writing in the Community,” allowed Gedetsis to partner with various Syracuse community centers to host writing workshops. Once the class ended, Gedetsis said he wanted to do more in the Syracuse community.
Gedetsis’ love for being involved with the community started before taking “Writing in the Community.”
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, 30-year-old Gedetsis was an “after-school kid” and benefited from attending after-school programs. This is part of what sparked his desire to get involved with a community-focused program his junior year of undergraduate studies at SU, Gedetsis said. Gedetsis found a love for being off-campus in places where he felt connected to the Syracuse community, “beyond the hill.”
That program was the Photography and Literacy Project, which paired SU undergraduates with middle and high school students to tell stories through writing and photography. The project inspired Gedetsis to enroll in “Writing in the Community,” which inspired him to start Write Out in 2020. The program now partners with seven different after-school locations.
Write Out was one of the first projects launched through SU’s Engaged Humanities Network, which connects university teaching and research with the local community. The network also helped Write Out secure funding through university grants. In fall 2025, Write Out became a nonprofit.
To help students become familiar with Write Out volunteers, the organization ensures volunteers are always present at the site locations. Write Out holds weekly workshops at two or three sites all year-round, Gedetsis said.
Two Write Out students share their poems in front of a large audience. Gedetsis has always been involved in his local community in Cleveland and wanted to stay involved after coming to Syracuse, leading him to start Write Out in 2020. Courtesy of Jacob Gedetsis
30-year-old Delaney Van Wey was introduced to Write Out by Gedetsis four years ago and began working at the community center as a volunteer. One of the first rules she learned about the program was that volunteers and site leaders shouldn’t miss more than one or two sessions each term. The consistency allows students to see the same people each week and build personal connections with them, Van Wey said.
After being involved with Write Out since 2023, Van Wey has seen the program’s impact on both students and volunteers.
“Their joy is really infectious, especially in a world that sucks sometimes,” Van Wey said. “To just take a moment to make some art and beauty and laughter in this world, that’s why I keep going back year after year.”
One of the ways Write Out is able to build personal connections with students is by providing push-in services. Push-in programming differs from camps or programs a student signs up for because the organization meets them in places they already are, such as after-school facilities.
Push-in writing programs like Write Out also engage many students whose only experience with writing has been from teachers marking up their work, Gedetsis said.
“We really believe all students are already storytellers,” Gedetsis said. “They’re telling stories in lunch lines and buses and how can we provide the space for them to tell those stories and gain storytelling and writing skills.”
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Write Out visits partner sites like Girls Inc. at the YWCA of Syracuse & Onondaga County with a range of volunteers, including university students, local writers and artists. Through these workshops, the organization can spark an interest in creative writing among students who may not have previously considered themselves writers
Typically, a Write Out workshop session starts with a prompt, such as asking students to write about their favorite color. Volunteers then work closely with students to talk about their writing and simply get to know them. At the end of the session, students are encouraged to share their work aloud with everyone, Gedetsis said.
By the end of Write Out’s spring session, which usually lasts around 15 weeks, volunteers and organizers collect all of the students’ work, type it up and publish it in an end-of-year chapbook. This validates students that writing goes beyond that classroom setting, Gedetsis said.
Toward the end of the year, Write Out also hosts an open-reading session where kids ages 6 to 18-years-old read their stories aloud in front of an audience of about 100 people. This experience gives the kids exposure to sharing their work while growing their confidence, Gedetsis said.
“We think they’re already storytellers but how can they begin to identify as a storyteller, reader and writer,” Gedetis said. “If we do that at a young age they’ll identify for the rest of their life.”
Write Out has grown through partnerships with local community centers, like Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology and Girls Inc. In fall 2022, Write Out brought students from Girls Inc. and North Side Learning Center to the museum once a week, where they had the space to themselves while working through writing prompts.
In July, Write Out received $34,000 in grants from the New York Community Foundation to collaborate with Syracuse Parks and Recreation on a two-year interactive project. Through the funding, Write Out will bring students to local parks to write poems inspired by urban ecology.
In the second year of the project, students’ poems will be displayed along poetry paths throughout the parks, Gedetsis said.
In April of 2025, Write Out celebrated its fifth anniversary. To commemorate, organizers created a chapbook of more than 200 pages of student work from over the years. In addition, volunteers created a giant art book including poems made out of lines from previous students’ work that was then displayed in a live art installation behind.
A parent smiles at a student presenter during an open-reading session. In July, Write Out received $34,000 in grants to bring students to parks to write poems inspired by urban ecology, which will later be displayed along different trails. Courtesy of Jacob Gedetsis
Summer Mohrmann first got involved with Write Out when she moved to Syracuse in August 2025 to start her Ph.D. at SU and was feeling disconnected from the community. Her friend introduced her to Write Out and has since become the Site Lead for Syracuse Parks and Recreation at the North Side Community Center.
Mohrmann worked in programming for Write Out at Syracuse’s Girls Inc. site this past summer and noticed how connected it made her feel to the city.
“Honestly, as beneficial for me feeling at home in Syracuse, I think it’s good for the soul,” Mohrmann said. “It’s good for the volunteers as much as it benefits the kids.”
The chapbook launches are some of the best parts of the program for Mohrmann. Getting to see the kids work hard on their writing allowed them to be the “center of the universe” for a moment, making Mohrmann’s work worthwhile, she said.
As an educator and student herself, Mohrmann has found the most rewarding part of Write Out is making literature, writing and reading as accessible as possible, she said.
At the Write Out sites, there’s no right or wrong way for students to participate, there’s only experimentation, Mohrmann said.
Van Wey has been working as a Girls Inc. Site Lead for Write Out for the past two years. She said she loved that program organizers emphasize that volunteers are not teachers and don’t give out grades. Instead, they just want the students to have as much fun as possible.
“They’re just the sweetest girls. They are crazy and funny and so creative,” Van Wey said. “Sometimes it’s funny creative and sometimes it’s so profound and beautiful that I can’t believe a 9,10,11 or 12-year-old just wrote that. I’m moved emotionally.”
Over the six years of its existence, Write Out has become a full-circle experience for volunteers and students, Gedetsis said. The nonprofit has allowed young people to feel confident in their writing and take ownership of their work, inspiring the next generation of Syracuse writers, Gedetsis said.
“We see students who I’ve worked with as middle schoolers through high schoolers going to college and they’re circling back into the program as mentors themselves,” Gedetsis said. “You get to see the kind of longitudinal experience of these young people and really develop long-term relationships.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said that the Photography and Literacy Project fizzled out when Stephen Mahan died in 2018. When Mahan died, the project didn’t end, it was passed to SU Art Museum who currently manages the program. The Daily Orange regrets this error.
