Twenty years ago, a first-year concurrent education student at Trent had an innovative idea – to set up a penpal program to connect University students with local grade school students as a way to gain practicum experience. Two decades later, the Trent Penpal Program is still going strong.

What began as a project involving one class in one school in Peterborough with 25 children and 25 university students has now evolved into a popular annual program involving over 325 grade school students in seventeen classrooms in four different schools and 325 Trent University penpals. Due to the strong success of the program in Peterborough, a similar program was launched at Trent University’s Oshawa campus two years ago.

“From the very beginning, it was seen as a way for university students to make a difference in the life of a child,” explains Dr. Deborah Berrill, a professor in the School of Education and Professional Learning at Trent, who helped to create the penpal program. “The goal is to promote literacy through sustained writing in a one-to-one relationship.”

Building a Sustainable, Student-Driven Program

Since its inception, the program has evolved dramatically, even though the basic principles and goals have remained the same. Penpals share letters every month and meet on special occasions throughout the year. The practice of writing and reading a new letter each month helps young children develop reading and writing skills and an appreciation for literacy.

Over the years, Professor Berrill has worked personally with Trent students and classroom teachers to develop structures that have helped make the program sustainable and student operated. Her role has evolved from organizer and facilitator into that of mentor for the student leaders, meeting with the senior team regularly throughout the year and assisting the incoming coordination team.

As the program grew, new roles needed to be developed to manage the complexity that comes with the large number of people involved. The current model of the program includes senior and junior coordinators, the behind-the-scenes forces, university classroom coordinators, responsible for relaying messages and managing each classroom, and the penpals themselves. An annual conference for Trent students to learn more about children’s literature and literacy is also now part of the program.

“By working closely with the classroom teachers involved, we’ve come up with ways to support teachers new to the program and developed new ideas to help teachers support children in their reading and writing,” says Prof. Berrill about one of the most positive developments of the program. “Trent students are also learning how to assess the writing development of their own penpals by studying the Ministry of Education writing expectations.”

Celebrating in Style

To mark the 20th anniversary of the program, the Trent Penpals celebrated in style with a party on Saturday, October 3 that included a barbeque, children’s activity corner and special guest speaker. Honorary patron of the program, Mrs. Dawn Franklin, wife of Trent’s new president, was present to help Trent celebrate the special milestone. Present and past penpals, along with program coordinators and elementary school teachers and principals, were also in attendance.

“Seeing a great mix of present and past participants and reconnecting to celebrate everyone’s contribution and commitment to the program has been the highlight,” says Miranda Wilson, a fourth-year Concurrent Education student who helped coordinate the event along with Prof. Berrill, the Trent University Alumni Association and the Penpal Program’s senior coordinators, Jennifer and Julie Kimball.

“The Penpal Program gets Trent students involved in something great in the community,” Ms. Wilson adds. “It’s a way for us to help. Young children also get to learn about literacy in an exciting way. They look up to us as role models and can imagine themselves as Trent students one day.”