Mike Smith:
Many parents of aspiring young writers might feel they don’t have the experience to really help their children grow as fiction writers. Today, homeschool graduate and fiction writer Tobin Duby joins us to talk about a program designed to help those families. Tobin, thanks for being with us today!

Tobin:
Thanks for having me on!

Mike:
Tobin, tell us about the writing mentor program you’re involved in right now.

Tobin:
Well, I’m in the student mentorship program at PHC. I have three mentees, over in Oklahoma and Arizona. They send me everything from their school reports to their creative projects. The program really takes advantage of technology. Email allows the students to share their work with me over long distances, and I communicate back by email or phone.

PHC accounts for the mentor’s interests and areas of experience, so we can be paired with just the right students. For example, I’m a creative writing major, so a lot of what I handle is fiction projects. And PHC is affording me a variety of creative writing experiences. I’m in a fiction writing class now, where we read and critique each other’s plays and short stories, I’m in a one-on-one writing workshop with Dr. David Aikman, and this kind of workload encourages me to experiment all the time. The mentorship program allows me to turn around and pass that teaching on to high schoolers in preparation for their college experience.

Mike:
What a great opportunity for homeschool families! Thank you for your work to help younger homeschool writers. Until next time, I’m Mike Smith.