By Romy Hildebrand
One student wrote powerful poetry about a prison hunger strike. Another explored sado-masochism and non-monogamy as safe spaces for healing. And another looked at the role hair plays in self-image. Whatever the project topic, a UC Santa Barbara writing fellowship funded by Santa Barbara author Diana Raab is changing lives.
“Moving forward, I do want to pursue writing, and I don’t think I would have been able to say that if I wasn’t involved in a program like this,” said Samantha Abajian, a third-year UCSB Film and Media Studies major, in a recent interview.
Abajian is one of 20 undergraduates who participated in this year’s Raab Writing Fellows Program, which celebrated its fifth anniversary last week by highlighting students’ hard work and inspiring results at the 2021 Raab Writing Fellows Showcase.
The Raab Fellows presented academic articles, websites, video games, short stories, poetry collections, and novels. Their topics ranged from deeply personal stories of trauma and healing, to the struggles of American immigrants, to photographic explorations of human impact on the environment.
Published author, editor, and poet Diana Raab, whose generosity funds the Raab Writing Fellows Program each year.
“These projects reflect the beauty, challenges, and resilience of the world in which we live,” said Ljiljana Coklin, director of the Raab program. “They also point to the urgency of the issues that affect personal lives and shape the communities and environments in which we grow up.”
Madeleine Sorapure, outgoing director of the Writing Program, Mary Hancock, acting Dean of the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, and the 14 faculty members who served as this year’s Raab writing mentors attended the virtual event to celebrate the achievements of this year’s Fellows.
UCSB Trustee Diana Raab, whose generous gift funds the program, was also present and offered her kudos to the group. “Congratulations to everyone. It is always so exciting for me to hear about the projects that you are involved in,” she said.
Each year, the Raab fellowship supports a select group of undergraduate students in a year-long project of their choosing to further develop their writing – academic, creative, or professional. Some projects are strongly oriented to multimedia, and some are very personal memoirs. Students are paired with Writing Program mentors, enroll in a year-long seminar class to collaborate with other fellows, and are awarded $750 for their project needs.
Student speakers at the showcase stressed the importance of peer support during their fellowships, especially during this pandemic year.
“Research in general, particularly as an undergraduate, can be kind of an isolating experience, and it’s rare to be able to do research in a collaborative process with my peers. Getting to learn through each other and improve our own work by helping each other out has been such a great process,” said Kathryn Swartz, incoming editor of the Daily Nexus student newspaper who was part of the academic writing group. Her project probes the nearly 20-year U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan.
Though the Raab fellows come from different academic backgrounds – their majors range from film to biology to political science – they all expressed a passion for writing, and found common ground in the purposes of their creativity.
Mikolaj (Nick) Godzick, UC Santa Barbara College of Creative Studies Biology Major and 2021 Raab Fellow who researched human impact on the environment for his multimedia project.
Nick Godzik, a second-year College of Creative Studies biology student, researched human impact on the environment for his project, “Living in the Anthropocene: The Unforseen Consequences of Human Actions.” He wanted to reach other UCSB students with his work and raise awareness about climate change. “I’ve focused more locally because I feel like that will have a stronger impact,” he said in an interview.
Godzick was part of the multimedia writing group and described the collective shared purpose of their projects as “advocacy.” Connie Yoon was among those who probed immigration and ethnicity.
“In telling the personal stories of real people through writing, we ultimately ended up humanizing them and being advocates for them – even for Nick, who was advocating for the environment rather than people,” explained Yoon. Her project explored how a “model minority” myth affects the experience and self-image of Asian Americans. “The common thread in our projects is storytelling to foster empathy and humanity.”
Lindsey Gumaer, of the creative writing group, developed a video game that explores the effects of smartphone dependency on mental health. “This game is going to be published for anyone and everyone to see, so hopefully it reaches other people and can help them talk about mental health,” she said.
The creative work of this year’s fellows impacts not only readers, but also the writers.
Samantha Abajian, third-year UCSB Film and Media Studies student and 2021 Raab Writing Fellow who wrote about her journey to accept her natural hair.
“Each of us have used writing as a mode of healing and renewal,” said Samantha Abajian of the experiences of her group. “We have strung together words that have helped us to creatively reclaim our stories of vulnerability, perseverance, loss, and connectivity.”
Abajian’s project, “Curling Back to Your Roots: Profiles of Curly Hair Journeys,” featured profiles of men and women and their relationship with their natural hair. She was inspired by her own journey to accept her natural hair.
The writing fellows benefited not only emotionally from their Raab experiences, but also academically.
Seven of this year’s Raab Writing Fellows, including Swartz and Abajian, attended the Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium to present their work. Two attended the Conference on College Composition and Communication. And another was featured in the UCSB student-run REEL LOUD Film and Arts Festival.
Many fellows are confident their fellowship work will serve them in the future.
“Raab has opened up a lot of doors for me,” said Godzik, who wrote on the environment. “I got into a research lab because of this project, and I feel like it’s really somewhere that I’m going to thrive, and maybe get a publication that’s really going to help me get into graduate school.”
Abajian says it has set her career path.
“I'm going to keep going. This is only the beginning. [The Raab program] really gave me the confidence to pursue writing,” she said.
Students and faculty thanked Diana Raab for her generosity. “Thank you for believing in us and thank you for believing in the promise and the potential of these young writers,” director Ljiljana Coklin told Raab.
“Keep up the good work,” Raab told the fellows, “and never stop writing.”
The Raab Writing Fellows Program is now taking applications for the 2021-2022 school year. The application can be found on its website, and the deadline to apply is Monday, June 21, 2021.
Romy Hildebrand is a third-year student at UC Santa Barbara majoring in Communication. She is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.