That is, until, he became part of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Fed Scholars Program. Terrance is one of seven incoming seniors at Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s Lincoln-West who were hired last summer as interns at the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank.
The Cleveland Fed recently published a book full of the students’ writing. The collection of poems and short stories, titled “Somewhere in Cleveland: The Cleveland Fed Scholars Story Project,” gives readers a look at the city through the students’ eyes.
Writing in the foreword to the book, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President and CEO Loretta J. Mester said, “The students’ stories are candid, written in their own words, and informed by their daily lives. Woven throughout the book are threads of youthful optimism and pride in their communities – something I find inspiring.”
Since 2001, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has partnered with community organizations to employ students from area high schools in a paid internship. The students learn about career paths, gain workplace and life skills and contribute to the Fed’s education and museum outreach work. But this was the first batch of Fed Scholars to also become published authors.
The idea for the book was born from writing projects the students completed last summer when they worked with writers from Lake Erie Ink during the internship. The writing instructors gave the students unique prompts and activities to inspire new thoughts, like taking a walk around the block in Downtown Cleveland and writing a poem about a person they saw.
When the interns weren’t writing, they were immersing themselves in the daily operations of the Fed and its Learning Center and Money Museum. They also attended the Policy Summit on Housing, Human Capital and Inequality, a national conference hosted by the Fed.
“Somewhere in Cleveland: The Cleveland Fed Scholars Story Project” is available to download for free on the Bank’s website.
To read more about the Cleveland Metropolitan School District students involved in writing the book, click here.
