Hosted by the UC Santa Barbara Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, the UC Veterans Summer Writing Workshop brought together over two dozen veterans, including many who served recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, to participate in short writing courses aimed at getting their personal narratives on paper.

1. Veterans Share Experiences
through Writing
By Douglas Reeves

2. Camp Nageela Midwest
provides an exciting, enriching
summer experience for Jewish
youth.
Hosted by the UC Santa
Barbara Interdisciplinary
Humanities Center, the
UC Veterans Summer
Writing Workshop brought
together over two dozen
veterans, including many
who served recently in
Iraq and Afghanistan, to
participate in short writing
courses aimed at getting
their personal narratives
on paper.
Image Source: http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/

3. Writing Exercises
● According to seminar instructors, these
veterans were guided through exercises that
helped them connect with readers, many of
whom might not share a similar background
or perspective, by creating cohesive pieces
from often unstructured or chaotic thoughts.

4. Poetry & Stories
● Over the course of the workshop, many students
shed rhetorical coping mechanisms like humor or
curtness to delve into often painful memories for
the purpose of creating truly compelling poetry
and stories.
● As a result, by the end of the program,
participants had developed close bonds built on
common ground and intense mutual respect for
others’ experiences.

5. Empathy
● The servicemen and servicewomen who
have experienced an overseas war zone all
have meaningful stories to share.
● Programs like the UC Veterans Summer
Writing Workshop enable them to do so—
and possibly even find some peace of mind
in the process.