Writopia Alumni Association

Welcome to the Writopia Alumni Association! Our mission is to
1) serve as a community for alumni to engage with each other
2) organize opportunities to support Writopia’s mission by raising funds for and mentoring underserved young writers

We look forward to the years ahead when our Writopia Alumni Association grows to be thousands deep and dispersed across the nation. Perhaps across the globe!

Alumni Workshops

Periodically, we offer Alumni Workshops. Please inquire by contacting Alumni@writopialab.org. 

Here are some of our first active alumni!

Eunju Namkung

Eunju recently founded a communications and marketing firm, Description Pills, that primarily serves public policy-oriented organizations including associations, educational institutions, and nonprofits. She began initiating the Writopia Alumni Association and is thrilled to be helping it become a sustainable, impactful wing of the Writopia community. Eunju is also received a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning and a Masters in Public Administration from the Virginia Tech School of Public and International Affairs in May 2020. She graduated from Yale University with a Bachelors in Film and Media Studies in 2013. Upon graduation, she returned to Writopia Lab where she founded the Filmmaking Program.

Emma Goldberg

Emma is a researcher at the New York Times, and she is excited to be hosting summer Writopia writers on field trips to the paper! Emma joined Writopia in the first-ever workshop in 2007, and it changed her life. Writopia was the most important community that she got to be a part of growing up, and being a Writopian made her want to be a lifelong writer and full-time journalist. She is infinitely grateful to Writopia, Rebecca, and everyone who has enabled this transformative organization to touch so many lives.

Ian Sherman

Ian graduated from Brown University and works in digital marketing. He joined Writopia in high school when he moved to New York City, and it has been one of the most transformative decisions of his life. He not only cultivated long lasting friendships, but also carried the skills of storytelling, emotional expression, and understanding people with him in all aspects of his life from how he interacts with friends and family to how he puts together decks and proposals at work.

Rachel Calnek-Sugin

Rachel Calnek-Sugin's life was changed and her love of writing was nurtured when she joined a Writopia Lab workshop as a middle schooler, and Writopia soon became a home away from home. Thirteen years later, Rachel is now a published and produced writer, educator, and activist committed to the openness of the soul in all its forms! She is delighted to join the Writopia staff as an instructor. Rachel writes stories, creative nonfiction, and plays—which have had productions or development in New York, New Haven, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles—about the weird, vast lives of women and girls. She graduated from Yale University in 2019, where she studied Creative Writing and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. Since then, she’s been developing and teaching in an after-school program for refugee youth in New Haven, CT.  Rachel completed her Master's in Social Work in July 2023.

Katie Hartman

Katie Hartman joined Writopia in middle school, when the classes were taught in Rebecca’s apartment! She continued to attend after-school workshops throughout high school (shout out to Courtney’s Tuesday group!). Katie is now a special education teacher and recently graduated with a Masters in elementary and special education. She will be returning to NYC this summer after six years in Philly and is looking forward to getting back in touch with Writopia friends.

Charlotte Rauner

Charlotte just completed a bachelor's degree in Economics and Social History from Barnard College of Columbia University. She will be working for a management consulting firm.

Charlotte’s sister and Emma Goldberg were friends throughout high school and Emma's love for Writopia brought it to her family's attention. In February of 2012, during her freshman year of high school, she attended a President's Week workshop led by Danielle. Her sister urged her to write a play, and because of that her romance with Writopia started. From 2012 until Charlotte graduated high school in 2015, she was a member of Dan's Tuesday night workshop, an intern on Sunday mornings for 1st and 2nd grades, and a participant of the Worldwide Plays Festival. These three and a half years refined not just who she is as a poet and playwright but who she is as a thinker, question asker, and creative person in the world. She is indebted to Writopia in more ways than one and the growth of an alumni network is just part of something she can do to say to thank you.

 

Past Events

October 2020

Writopia Lab alums, Jonathan Bar-On and Benjamin Oestericher, have launched Writopia Lab’s very own voting rights institute, Write to Vote (WTV).

Writopia Lab's mission is to foster joy, literacy, and critical thinking in all young people, and one way we do this is through our debate and newspaper programs. Our debate alum created this new initiative, Write to Vote, in order to promote voter education through writing and discourse. The ACLU initiative that Write to Vote is participating in entails sharing and discussing platform information with potential voters in a nonpartisan way, without promoting specific candidates; The One Arizona initiative that they are participating in entails volunteers writing summaries of each and every one of the candidates’ positions as a resource for voters. All ages are welcome to participate.

Writopia Lab is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or endorse candidates.

September 2020

• Virtual Phone Bank Collab between ACLU and Vote Tripling
• All ages welcome to participate

WTV is mobilizing a college-age and early professional volunteer corps dedicated to protecting the voting rights of all Americans. We are super excited to be partnering with several grassroots organizations such as the ACLU and OneArizona to help educate and register voters.

This will be a new phone bank to talk with voters who've already told us they will vote in 2020. We will train you to ask supporters to turn out 3 friends/colleagues/family members to this year's election.

2019 Fundraiser

For our first efforts as a Forever Writopians Alumni Collective, a group of us -- Katie Hartman, Charlotte Raunser, Ian Sherman, Rachel Calnek-Sugin -- organized a series of events to raise money for the Dan Kitrosser Playwriting Scholarship.

We thank all those who participated in these events and contributed towards our fundraising efforts. We were able to raise a seed fund of $1,500 towards the Dan Kitrosser Playwriting Scholarship that will benefit low income playwriting students looking to participate in Writopia’s workshops and in Writopia’s Worldwide Plays Festival.

It is only the beginning. Come join us! Reach out to us at Alumni@writopialab.org.