Oak View Middle School student earns Lillian Wright Award for Creative Writing
(01/17/2020) Each year, sixth-grade students at Oak View Middle School (OVMS) in Andover have the opportunity to work with published authors on writing poetry. The authors visit English classes at OVMS as guest teachers for a week to help inspire students to find their voice through poetry.
This program is called COMPAS, and for over 50 years, they have been helping spark creativity in the community by helping students, teachers, older adults, hospital patients and teens through various forms of art.
Rhett LeBeau, a now seventh-grade student at OVMS, took part in this program as a sixth-grader, and after coming up with a unique poem, he was awarded for his writing. LeBeau received the Lillian Wright Award for Creative Writing for his poem titled: Pluto to Jupiter.
“Our assignment for this poem was to write a letter from someone to another someone or something,” LeBeau said. “I thought it would be really cool to write one about space and I was just toying around with ideas and thought that Pluto is rather unappreciated now that it has been considered to not be a planet.”
LeBeau then decided to write his poem as a letter from the smallest planet in our solar system to the biggest planet, playing off of the size difference and other characteristics that differentiate the two. He said that in his letter from Pluto to Jupiter, he described the differences in color, size, gravitational pull, temperature, and in the end Jupiter poking fun at Jupiter for no longer being considered a planet.
Barb Schaust, a sixth-grade English Language Arts teacher at OVMS, was amazed by the work of all students during their time with the guest poet.
“Many students are inspired by our guest poet because of the way they look at the world,” Schaust said. “They inspire the students to write from a variety of perspectives, as well as search for the perfect words to create the image and feeling they are trying to convey. Rhett’s work really stood out because he has a vast vocabulary and a great background of knowledge.”
Along with the award, LeBeau’s poem was chosen to be published in the COMPAS Anthology of Student Writing.
“I was pretty happy,” LeBeau said. “I think it is pretty cool that someone thought my poem was special enough to be printed in a book. I’m sure there are a lot of kids out there who wrote better poems than I did, but I think it’s really cool that someone took the time and effort to publish mine.”
Schaust said that the additional award LeBeau received was very exciting to hear as well.
“Rhett is one of those students that spark joy in teaching,” Schaust said. “I look forward to seeing where life takes Rhett.”
LeBeau’s poem was published in the 2018-19 Selected Works from the COMPAS Creative Classroom Program, titled The World in Our Palms.