Fresh Start

The process of the digital story was very eye-opening. Along the way, I’ve learned so much about myself. I found all of this out by researching. I have discovered things my family didn’t even know until now!

By Annie B. from New Tech High at Coppell in Texas


I feel so connected to my family and I am very thankful for the decisions they have made that impacted my life in a good way. I have never written a poem this way before. My facilitator, Mrs. Bence, gave us links to websites that explain the writer's version of American Creed. There were also links to poems from famous writers that sparked our brain to an idea that could change the whole poem. We had to write personal connections to the links and put it into a poem. I learned about my family history and when the Brandenburg Family came to America. I learned that I had a royal family in Germany. I had a lot of trouble answering, what stories impacted what I consider to be American? I struggled to answer that because I didn’t know anything about my family. I searched and searched and searched. I think this activity was really important because it gets you more connected to your family and where you came from. It is crazy that 1 thing could change your life forever.

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Writing Our Future: American Creed is part of the National Writing Project’s family of youth publishing projects, all gathered under the Writing Our Future initiative.

Writing Our Future projects are designed by educators for educators and the young people they work with. Intended for use in schools, libraries, and other educational settings. All projects are COPPA compliant and educator-managed. NWP is committed to supporting young people’s writing and civic participation by providing a safe and supportive environment for youth writing, media creation, sharing, and publishing.