Dear Seniors,
We have loved spending WriCampia 2025 mornings with you all. The laughs, the stretches, and of course, your thoughtful, lyrical writing energized and inspired us from beginning to end. We are so proud of you and what you accomplished this year—and every year at camp. It has been our greatest honor to witness your growth over the years, and to learn the most important stories of your lives this summer. We can’t wait to see you at camp in two years!!
Much love,
Rebecca, Léna, Eunju, Harrison, and Ella
Alejandra: A symphony of foreign words wash over me, some I manage to translate after a split second, but others evade capture as I silently chase their meaning.
Allison: When I grow up I see myself in the air force as a clinical psychologist. I want to be able to help others, while being able to open my military status as a way to help my dad to gain citizenship. Education can be the biggest weapon, so why shouldn’t I fight for it?
Bryce: I only passingly believe in fate or karma- but I’ve always known, on a spiritual level, that I was destined for art.
Ciri: It’s also about the little things you do on a daily basis to keep the community strong: making sure everyone belongs, feels welcome, and learns something.
Hugh: And every time that ritual failed against the sweeping flood of rain, I felt cracks in the levee. I knew something had to give.
Leila: Walking through my neighborhood, the city greets me before I even turn the corner. A little boy passes me on a bike, his laughter cutting through the music, while an older man nods to me as he dances to Luther Vandross playing from his speaker; the rich, slow notes blend with the hum of conversation from people leaning on stoops.
Lily: My dad taught me how to figure things out by myself. To view the world in parts. I see individual pieces of cloth sewn together before I see a shirt.
Mia: When I sat down to edit it later I felt like the footage was somehow holy; like it was more than just a girl lying face-up in a pool.
Myles: Trusting someone with your private information is like going on stage not knowing what will happen. You can either connect with someone or face consequences. It takes bravery to show your weaknesses and hope others will respect them. But sometimes that trust is misused, and the results can be devastating.
Paige: Latin is a language of extreme precision, but it is also dysfunctional and twisted. Order means nothing to a Latin scholar. Instead, us Latin students try to figure out what “belongs” the most – what makes sense in our world.
Phoebe: Dancing may force you into proximity with your self-consciousness, but at the same time, it also teaches you how to become one with yourself and relax in your body.
Quinn: Nonetheless, I was determined to find some way to complete both the singing and the dancing requirement for the audition. I watched the choreography practice video over and over again in the open space of my basement, getting a sense of the directions of the movements and figuring out how I could adapt them to be less strenuous.
Savannah: But then at the last minute, I finally realized what I wanted and what my communities needed: Young & Heard, a non-profit organization committed to the cultural and social education of students of color in the tristate area and beyond… Now, I’ve built an outlet for my community. I expanded this project wider than I could’ve thought. I did it the Issa way.
Sophie: The spirit of 4-year-old me making sand art at craft fairs, and the passion of 11-year-old me scribbling down business plans manifest into my salesperson persona, 17-year-old me who thinks about the bracelets this way: If taken apart, they reduce to mere rubber bands, eventually crumbling with time and leaving only an artifact of what was once hard work, relaxation, and connection; the excitement has always translated to community.
Tessa: I had developed close friends ready to throw life vests to repel the currents of overwhelming school work, fellow poets with their metaphorical ropes ready to pull me out of those rough seas of testing season storms, and teachers waiting with blankets to dry me off.
Tommy: The game had flipped a switch in my mind, encouraging me not to dread challenges but to relish them. It started a journey for me that led to me discovering how to help myself and become a truer version of me.
Willem: Even though I will go back to Iowa, I can never grow up there again. That time in my life has left, but I will still look back on Iowa, and how I grew into myself there.
Wilbur: I rub my thumb along the calluses on the pads of my fingers, proud of the gritty stiffness they’ve acquired.
