Piloting Partnership with Engineering Human Togetherness in Support of Summer Research (and Writing) with CWP-Fairfield and Dr. John Drazan

Several Engineering faculty and I have put in federal grants for potential summer programs between CWP, Engineering students, and the potential of writing projects at Fairfield University, only to learn the grants were defunded by current administration. On a whim, I threw in a smaller grant locally and received it, so yesterday we mixed K-12 teachers, high school students, and engineering students on campus doing research with Dr. Drazan. William King, our teacher extraordinaire, is the go-to man between us and the opportunity has been good for us all...especially when thinking about the ways engineers communicate information to others.

I did a sestina workshop, highlighting a poem Abu, Lossine, and I published, explaining that writers engineer language in different ways, but formal poetry asks us to look at mechanism to follow to have a structure to say what we have to say. This was used to highlight the importance of education in all learning communities, especially first generation college students, immigrant- and refugee-background youth, and finding bridges to success between institutions of higher education and local K-12 schools. 

Next week, Little Lab for Big Imaginations, begins the younger years for the work as we are engineering two weeks of inventions, both physically and with words. In my office are several children's books I ordered for such occasions. The older writers are engineering their novels, with a special attention to science, machinery, and the ways all humans depend on development in our lives that takes a different kind of brainwork. 

John says STEM is an art, so the push for STEAM is redundant. The assumption is that there is no art in engineering which he refutes (and I'm thankful for that. 

Already in week one, I can see conference paper proposals going into the 2026 calendar as the connections are already being made for why such partnerships manifest great work. I'm looking forward to all that comes next, especially the writing that comes from the engineering students which I would love to include in this summers POW! Power of Words publication.

The humidity has broken. Campus is shut down. And fireworks will be booming all weekend. Ah, here's to success in week one. Now, let's bring on the younger writers to join us!