SIARRA FRANCOIS
YEARS AS MENTEE: 1
GRADE: Junior
HIGH SCHOOL: Brooklyn College Academy
BORN: Brooklyn, NY
LIVES: Brooklyn, NY
MENTEE’S ANECDOTE: Coming into this program, I was anxious because I did not know what to expect. When I first met Ashley, she helped to make me feel more comfortable coming into the program and pushed me to branch out into genres I wasn’t confident in before. This piece was chosen because I felt like it helped build a stronger bond with my mentor on something that we’d both struggled with.
ASHLEY WELCH
YEARS AS MENTOR: 1
OCCUPATION: Health Editor, CBSNews.com
BORN: Yonkers, NY
LIVES: Queens, NY
MENTOR’S ANECDOTE: When I first met Siarra, she told me the genre of writing that she was most interested in and also the most scared of was poetry. I said, “Same, girl.” But we were determined to find our voices in this writing style that was so foreign to us both. Seeing the passion with which she wrote about her younger brother, I decided to write a poem about a family member as well: my grandmother. We worked together every step of the way, and I’m really proud of the poems that spilled onto our pages.
Through the lens of my nine-year-old brother, this piece looks at the challenges that people diagnosed with autism face.
Didane
He stands out,
Energetic like the pink bunny that just keeps going and going.
No door should be even slightly open because for him that’s out of the ordinary.
He wipes every tear away but not for the sadness because
It’s out of place.
His unique behavior is what makes him Didane.
Like a beach on a stormy night the world can be frightening
With the thunder roaring and the shores crashing with the sand
With the cars honking and an assemblage of people
What seems like a tumultuous place
For us is even more challenging for him
Rigid routines, missed social cues
Like a brick wall between the two.
But it shouldn’t stop there,
The heart of society has opened.
He now has the ability to save lives
And fight for the rights of others just like him.
What was once a challenge
has become something that he conquers every day.
He is more than autism
He is Didane.