Hendrick Hudson Sends 15 Students to Young Authors Conference

Fifteen Hendrick Hudson High School students, who were chosen by their English teachers for their passion and aptitude for writing, attended the 38th annual Young Authors Conference on the PNW BOCES Campus in Yorktown Heights on May 1. Accompanied by Creative Writing teacher and Literary Magazine Advisor Juliana Maye, the students spent the entire day indulging their creative sides and meeting other like-minded students from the region.

This year's annual event was another successful product of much planning on the part of conference coordinators Danielle Colangelo, Jennifer DelVecchio and Diane Sarna. On a beautiful sunshine-filled day, the students attended writing workshops in various locations across the PNW BOCES campus, including several seminars in outside tents.

As always, students had the unique opportunity to work with professional writers, editors and educators from diverse fields who shared their experience and skills with the participants. These presenters hosted activities that encouraged participants to write, create, share, and discuss their writing with other devoted student writers from various high schools across the Lower Hudson Valley. 

The 2025 conference was entitled "Writing Outside the Margins," a theme meant to inspire students to challenge the status quo and be courageous in their creative expression. Ms. Maye, the district’s longtime facilitator of this event, received positive feedback from this year's Hen Hud student attendees, who came away with pages and pages of newly written drafts.

“The workshops inspired them to fearlessly express their visions and celebrate their individual voices through unique use of language and structure,” she said.