During The Castle Group’s Spirit Week celebrating our 20th anniversary, we hosted a day-long workshop at our office in the Navy Yard as part of WriteBoston’s six-week summer program that engages students to improve their writing, build journalism skills and explore different parts of Boston.
WriteBoston is an organization that helps Boston Public School students advance their writing skills and partners with local organizations such as The Boston Globe, Artists for Humanity and now, The Castle Group.
The workshop at Castle formally kicked off our year-long partnership with WriteBoston, and all of us were thrilled to welcome the students into our office and world of communications.
Our fearless leaders Sandy and Wendy encourage all of us to give back to our community and this was an apt opportunity for us to help build and support the next
generation of great, thoughtful communicators.
The day began with a meet and greet for students and Castle staff to prepare for the day’s first exercise – elevator pitches. Through a practice round of elevator pitches, we spent some time getting to know the students. Personally, the highlight was listening to the goals and dreams of the students – from novelists to fashion designers to journalists.
We then jumped right into the day’s workshops.
Workshop Part 1: Write a Feature Article
Each WriteBoston student interviewed a Castle mentor and then wrote a feature article about the team member they interviewed. Castle mentors then reviewed, edited and provided feedback to each student. Students also had an opportunity to ask one-on-one questions.
Workshop Part 2: Mad Lib Press Release
As Castle mentors we worked with the students to convert the feature article they wrote earlier in the day, into a press release – Mad Lib style. We then had a group discussion on media distribution channels and targeted pitching strategies.
Workshop Part 3: Writing for Social Media
In their final workshop, WriteBoston students learned best practices on how to adapt or tailor information for social media channels LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The students even drafted content to accompany a Castle and WriteBoston photo to push to Instagram in real time.
WriteBoston students also spent some time exploring our back yard – the historic Charlestown Navy Yard. We ended the day with a surprise ice cream truck and gifted each student a copy of the AP Style Book, to continue learning beyond a day in the office.
We’re proud to support a community that cares about student achievement and amplifies the skills of future communicators and writers.
Big thanks to WriteBoston for spending the day with us!
