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YouthWrite Highlands Experience 2025

June 29 - July 4, 2025

Day Camp For Ages 8-12
A unique opportunity for kids to expand their writing horizons. Campers will receive guidance from published authors and learn writing techniques for specific genres.

$700.00 CAD
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$700 Subtotal
       

Highlands Experience 2025

Registration is now open!

PLEASE NOTE: REGISTRATION CLOSES ON JUNE 22, 2025

Day Program with option to stay overnight on Thursday, July 3th 2025.

  • Ages 8-12
  • June 29th - July 4th, 2025
  • 8:30am-4:30pm
  • Sunday, June 29th is orientation 3:00pm-4:30pm. Thursday 8:30pm or overnight. Friday there is a party to which parents are invited that will go until 5:30pm if you'd like to attend)
  • Highlands United Church, Edmonton, Alberta
  • Tuition - two options
  1. Daycamp only - $700.00
  2. Overnight Camp - $740.00

YouthWrite Fees Include

8 hours of daily instruction/activity led by highly qualified instructional and supervisory staff, supervised lunch and break times. All supplies are provided as are daily lunches and snacks (and Friday breakfast for the Thursday night overnighters). Each participant is required to dress for the weather, bring PPE, indoor and outdoor shoes, and will receive a complimentary copy of YouthWrite: the Magazine.

For those of you new to YouthWrite:

Registration steps continue after registration on this site. After you complete the registration on this site, we ask that you proceed to Campfax, a secure camp database and:

  • fill in important details
  • provide a letter of reference from a teacher/mentor
  • provide the answers to the four YouthWrite questions
  • provide a short sample of writing

You are not fully registered until all steps are completed.


Please note

All fees include $100 non-refundable fee.  No refunds will be made if registration is cancelled after June 23, 2025.

A full refund will be possible in the event an applicant is not accepted into the program or if COVID restrictions require that we cancel or reconfigure camp. YouthWrite Society Canada reserves the right to cancel courses and restrict enrollment. Courses, instructors and supervisors may be subject to change.





When

June 29th - July 4th, 2024

Full Week - Day Camp

Optional Overnight on Thursday July 3rd

Where

Highlands United Church

Edmonton, Alberta

Who

Guest instructors:

Natasha Deen
Elsa Robinson
Cowboy Dan Schneider
Kelly Turner


Blue Pencil Café Editor:

Tololwa Mollel


Our Special Guest Presenter:

TBA


Our Super Supers:

Mason Repka

Michael Watt

More TBA!


Client Services

Tania Gigliotti


River Valley Experience Coordinator

Marla Albiston


YouthWrite Director-Coordinator:
Gail Sidonie Sobat



Guest Instructors



YOUTHWRITE INSTRUCTORS: THE CREAM OF THE CROP!


Throughout YouthWrite's history, we have prided ourselves on the calibre of our fine instructors.


YouthWrite invites superbly talented and reputable instructors who represent the many facets of the performing, visual, musical, dance, film, and written arts. 


MORE AMAZING INSTRUCTORS TBA SOON!


Natasha 2022

 Natasha Deen  


Bio

Guyanese-Canadian Natasha Deen is a best-selling author and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. Natasha’s novels include In the Key of Nira Ghani (Amy Mather Teen Book Award), Spooky Sleuths: The Ghost Tree (School Library Journal Best Books of 2022). Her most recent YA title, The Signs and Wonders of Tuna Rashad was a Globe & Mail's Top 100 Books for 2022. When she’s not writing, she teaches Introduction to Children’s Writing with the University of Toronto’s SCS and spends an inordinate amount of time trying to convince her pets that she’s the boss of the house. Visit Natasha at www.natashadeen.com.


Course

TBA - 





 Elsa Robinson


Bio

Elsa Robinson (aka Auntie Elsa) is a multimedia visual artist whose art practice includes acrylic painting, sculpture, textiles, and collage. Since 2004, her work has been featured in numerous art exhibits. Elsa’s art addresses themes of identity, family, history, and spirituality. She started her art career as a self-taught artist, and now holds the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts. Elsa is also a highly experienced Alberta certified teacher. She combines her love of art and teaching to develop and facilitate art workshops for participants of all ages and abilities.


Course

Colour & Cut and Paste + Paint Your Words -  TBA




Daniel J Schneider


Bio

Daniel J Schneider (known to YouthWriters as "Cowboy Dan")is a comic artist, illustrator and storyteller hailing from his family's cattle ranch near Edmonton. He holds the honour of being the first Comic shop Artist in Residence at Happy Harbour Comics and has been privileged to be teaching students about how to create comics for the past 9 years. You can find his work in comics such as Gamesworkshop’s “Reforged”, “The Saga of the Jack of Spades”, “Ape Court” and soon the webtoon Sire & Cub.


Course

TBA - 





 Kelly Turner


Bio

Kelly Turner - Coming soon! 


Course

TBA!




 

 Blue Pencil Café with Tololwa Mollel


Bio

Tololwa Mollel, - Coming soon!


Activity

Blue Pencil Café - Share a piece of writing with our resident editing expert and get constructive feedback on your wordsmithery! Poetry, fiction, dialogue, plots, operas, plays - our Blue Pencil expert can help you with your craft. Sign up is daily at camp.


The Amazing Supers

Handpicked and multi-talented, YouthWrite Supers are the centre of our camps. As artists, teachers and mentors, they bring the X-Factor to YouthWrite.


MORE AMAZING SUPERS TBA SOON!


Elise Leske

Elise Leske is a past YouthWriter who now dabbles in comedy, camerawork, and crossword puzzles.  When she’s not on set or doing stand up, she likes painting and crushing her opponents in board games (she often loses).  She is also Gail’s favourite. 


 

Joy Love  


Bio Coming Soon!




Mason Repka


Mason (he/they) is a YouthWrite Office Bee, working with Gail and Tania behind the scenes to make sure YouthWrite events go swimmingly. Mason loves to teach writing through roleplay, whether it be Live-Action or Table-Top. He has had the pleasure of teaching youth and adults alike the joys of table-top gaming and group storytelling through private events, Jube School, and YouthWrite. He also owns and operates Dark Ascension LARP, and is returning to defend his title as Gail and Marla's favorite. 




Client Services

Tania Gigliotti

is the little Hobbit you may have seen previously working in the children's section of bookstores and comic book stores around Edmonton. When she's not working for YouthWrite, she is the Project Manager on the Young People are the Future Project researching youth engagement in living history museums. At YouthWrite, she is Master of Excel and Campfax and also Communications Manager.




River Valley Experience Coordinator

Marla Albiston

has been involved with YouthWrite for approximately 15 years…she can’t remember the exact number, because she’s been having so much fun! She completed her BEd degree at the U of A, and since then has had the wonderful opportunity to apply her love of education with her passion for movement, teaching Dance at various schools with EPSB. She also works as a freelance dance teacher/choreographer, dances with the local Contemporary company ViVA Dance, and performs in aerial circus with Firefly Theatre and Circus. Marla is beyond excited for the magic that once again will be taking place at YouthWrite this summer and to work with Gail who loves her best!




YouthWrite Director- Coordinator

Gail Sidonie Sobat


is a multi-award-winning teacher and author, with twelve books for children, teens and adults, and a number of educational and academic articles. A Global News Woman of Vision and an Arts and Culture Citation Award recipient, she is the YouthWrite creator/ coordinator, an international presenter, an instructor in the professional writing program at MacEwan University and in the Faculty of Education at U of A. Gail was The Writers’ Union of Canada Regional Representative for Alberta, NWT and Nunavut, and writer in residence with the Metro Edmonton Federation of Libraries. 


She has moved forty times in her life from Badlands to Siksika Nation Reserve to hideous suburbs to Istanbul to the Sunshine Coast to her writer’s garret in a century-old temperamental house. She adores all of her Supers & Coordinators equally, and loves YouthWrite like a madwoman!



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