While most teenagers only think about writing or poetry for their English class, there’s a club at Alisal where students write for fun. The Writers of Alisal allow students to share their poetry and get feedback.  The club is an open space where any writer can come in during lunch, share and write down their thoughts or feelings. 

The writers of Alisal have been around since 2016. Former English teacher Natalie Bernasconi was the original club adviser and she found that the writing students were doing in school wasn’t expressive enough and wanted to give students the liberty to free write. “A lot of the writing students had to do in English class isn’t necessarily creative writing,” Bernasconi said. “I wanted to create the club for them to have the opportunity to do so.” 

Bernasconi created just that. Students had the opportunity to get feedback on their writing or just get praised for it. The club called this press, bless, and address which they could choose what kind of feedback they wanted and according to Bernasconi most students picked bless. The idea came from the National Writing Project and the club had adopted their protocol into their own space. 

Bernasconi did not limit the members’ writing to only the club; she put the students’ poetry out there by entering them in writing competitions. One competition Bernasconi signed her club up for was a poetry competition in which all high schools would compete. In this competition, students shared their poetry and, if they were lucky enough, brought home a trophy to their school and showed off a victory. 

According to Bernasconi, Alisal won the trophy many times. Although Bernasconi only advised the club for 3 years, she built a connection with her students and still keeps in touch with the president of the club from when she was club adviser.

In 2019, Bernasconi was leaving Alisal and wanted to pass the club on.  She asked English teachers Ignacio Mendez and Veronica Pulido to take over the club as advisers. “I knew that the space itself could one day inspire a future writer or poet,” Mendez said. 

Mendez took up the offer when a couple of his students from his AP class told him about their love for writing and poetry. 

Now, the club has  become very dear to both advisers. Pulido sees the students as examples of advocacy and self-expression. “We both see the future in youth when it comes to writing and we want to keep it alive,” she said. 

Mendez and Pulido enter the members in poetry competitions. The young poets had an opportunity to compete in a national program called Poetry Out Loud. In this competition, writers are able to share their poetry to have a chance to win a large sum of money. The competition was in January and was not only limited to the writers club. 

Senior Carlos Rocha, the president of The Writers of Alisal Club, entered the competition and recited a poem about childhood. Rocha is already in the process of becoming a famous poet. He has a poetry account with 6,578 followers who love hearing his poetry. Poetry out loud was another great opportunity for this young poet to expand. “I usually only read my poetry to close friends or share it online for others to see,”  Rocha said. “But this showcased to me that spoken word poetry truly expresses the emotion that the poet was trying to convey.”

Although he wasn’t able to participate in the schoolwide competition due to other circumstances, Rocha felt great about the performance he gave in his English classroom. “For it being the first time I’ve recited poetry that isn’t mine, I felt I did a pretty good job at both projecting my voice and expressing the emotions the poet had intended. There’s still a lot of work ahead, and I am sad that I couldn’t make it to the competition, but this was a great start.” 

Freshman Ignacio Mendez Jr., the youngest member of the club, came in 2nd place. This was Mendez’s first year competing in Poetry Out Loud, and he felt proud at coming in second place. “I thought I was going to come in fourth or third place, but getting second was really surprising for me and unexpected,” he said. Although being in a class full of upperclassmen, Mendez appreciates his peers’ knowledge and experience. “It feels great because you get to socialize with kids who are in higher grades who have more experience,” he said. Mendez also plans on entering the competition for the next three years.

Of course, the club is mainly about writing. Junior Nadine Garcia joined the club in her freshman year and has been a consistent member since. Writing is important to Garcia, and she appreciates the fact that the club provides a safe space for her and the writers in the club. “I know some people like to write songs and it’s always an open space,” she said. 

Garcia finds writing to be a coping mechanism when she’s stressed. What she can’t describe out loud, she instead writes down on paper as a way to destress. A line Garcia likes to remember from her poetry is “The sun will shine regardless.” This quote is special to Garcia since it reminds her that everything will be ok in the end. 

The club currently has 23 members and they meet every other Friday during lunch. Students can come in and enjoy the positive environment. “It’s a safe space for anyone to say what they want to say,” Pulido said.