WordPowered - formerly WriteBoston

We are grateful to Philanthropy Massachusetts' Summer Fund for awarding a $10,000 grant to support our Summer Journalism Institute!

Founded in 1971, the Summer Fund is a donor collaborative that supports summer camps and enrichment programs for underserved youth throughout Greater Boston. The Summer Journalism Institute empowers Boston-area teens to strengthen their writing, reporting, and storytelling skills while exploring issues that matter to their communities. Thank you to Philanthropy Massachusetts for continuing to invest in the next generation of journalists, civic leaders, and changemakers.

On May 14th, Teens in Print celebrated the end of Cycle 2 with the Rising Voices Awards. Congratulations to Our Rising Voices Awards Winners! Thank you to our readers who voted in this cycle. Stay tuned for the next cycle in the winter!

From Tier 1: "How the Scroll is Shaping Your Life" by David Dang (https://bit.ly/4v6zAPe)

From Tier 2: "BIPOC and Q***r Artists: The Overlooked Pioneers of the Art World" by Aminata Mboum (https://bit.ly/49brZpZ)

From the Newsroom: "Texturism in the Black Community & the Need to Conform to White Beauty Standards" by Vivi Ndwiga (https://bit.ly/4e1ymxR)

170+ attendees at GBH Studios

$100K+ raised for WordPowered's programs: Teens in Print & Collaborative Coaching

Pros&Conversation 2026 has us seeing WordPowered’s circle grow! As the numbers come in, we had 170+ attendees and raised $100,000. Grateful it happened; it happened because of you.

A special thank you to our featured author, Dr. Jarvis R. Givens, for ensuring that we celebrated 100 years of Black History Month and honored the pantheon of everyday memory workers who did their part. Now, we unleash youth writers who see themselves in this tradition of storytelling, truth-telling.

"It makes me immensely grateful and joyful to see that my work is leaving a mark on history. And one thing that I've always realized, like writing and journalism, is that writing is one of the only ways that the past, future, and present can talk to one another. Writing defies all the laws of space and time. The Daily Table [grocery store in Mattapan] is no longer here, but its legacy still lives on through my article."
- Ketura Joseph, TiPTalk 2026

Thank you to our incredible host committee, our supporters, Board, staff, educators, and youth for filling GBH Studios. Thank you to our corporate sponsors and champions who stepped up for us. We joined forces with JustBookish and the Dorchester Reporter to enrich the literary/writerly lives of Boston's youth and strengthen community journalism.

In partnership with the Sarah-Ann Shaw family, we have established a youth journalism scholarship, and we awarded 5 scholarships through the Nancy Murphy Giving Fund. They are off to Bentley, Bowdoin, Harvard, Pomona, and Yale.

WordPowered's circle grows, and you are an integral part of it. Thank you!



(All photo credits to Theresa Johnson of Johnson Photography)